Rinku Singh: KKR's Understated Star in IPL 2022

Rinku Singh was a part of the Kolkata Knight for a good five seasons. He missed the 2021 season with a knee injury, and was on the bench through the other seasons with very few opportunities coming his way. The young batter has a nice reputation in domestic cricket, and with KKR’s habit of retaining their talents, he was bought back, and this season he has been given a decent role.

Starting on the bench again, Rinku Singh had to wait for his turn until KKR finally realized that they needed to make changes to their batting line-up. With Venkatesh Iyer not able to replicate his previous season form, Shubman Gill in another team and the likes of Aaron Finch and Ajinkya Rahane struggling for consistency the chance came to Rinku Singh.

He came in as a player who could bridge the gap between the accumulators in the top four and the hitters in Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. With the message in the Kolkata camp simple, that is to be positive, Rinku Singh brought out his strokes and made instant impact.

In his first game this season against the Gujarat Titans, Rinku Singh walked in with Kolkata in a bad state. The side was four down for 34 with Shreyas Iyer among the batters who were dismissed. Rinku Singh had Venkatesh Iyer for company and as Iyer struggled, Singh took the initiative and looked after the scoreboard. He found boundaries regularly and took KKR to a position that could help Andre Russell come into the game. His innings worked well as Andre Russell came in and exploded almost winning the game for KKR.

Along with his innings, Rinku Singh turned out to be a valuable fielder as well. He took four catches in the innings while standing in key positions during the death overs. Against the Delhi Capitals, Rinku Singh again gave a useful contribution. The Kolkata Knight Riders struggled against the Delhi Capitals with only three batters getting into double digits. Four batters were dismissed without scoring and Rinku Singh only came in at number eight, to join Nitish Rana with the task of guiding KKR to some total.

See Also: IPL 2022: Young Pace Guns of The Season – Cricket Winner

He supported Nitish Rana well and ended with 23, dismissed in the final over as KKR found a way to get 150. His best performance though, and one that Rinku Singh will remember for a long time is the knock against the Rajasthan Royals.

KKR came into the game with five losses on the trot and had a strong team ahead of them. Chasing 152 on a sluggish track KKR found themselves in trouble again thanks to their failing top-order. Shreyas Iyer did well to steady the ship, but the run-rate was rising when Rinku Singh joined Nitish Rana again. Unlike against the Capitals though, this time Rinku Singh took the forward step. He batted with positivity and looked very confident after two helpful contributions in the previous game.

His innings was laced with some wonderful shots as Rinku Singh took the game away from Rajasthan with is 42 off 23 balls. He hit six fours and a six, and ended as the man-of-the-match. An interesting feature in his innings this season though was his strokeplay. Coming down the order, Rinku Singh has hardly looked to power the ball. Rather than relying on wild slogs, Rinku Singh brings a smart range of shots, and has shown his ability to use the field well to find his runs.

He has a touch of unorthodox skill while finding effective ways to score runs and his six of Kuldeep Sen over fine-leg is an example of how he finds ways to score runs. He doesn’t seem unfazed against pace as well, and three games in, with three wonderful contributions, Rinku Singh finally seems to have found his place in the IPL.