Rinku played a crucial cameo in the first T20I against Australia to take India over the finishing line.
Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the southpaw amassed 474 runs from 14 innings at a brilliant average and strike rate of 59.25 and 149.52 respectively. More than the impressive numbers, he captured everyone’s imagination by finishing games for KKR from difficult situations.
Subsequently, Rinku was rewarded a place in India’s squad for the T20I tour of Ireland and the Hangzhou Asian Games. The left-hander did reasonably well in the lower middle-order to retain his place in the national side.
On Thursday (November 23), Rinku Singh performed a brilliant finishing job as he played a crucial cameo of 22* in 14 balls to help India chase a massive target of 209 with one delivery remaining in the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam.
Impressed with his finishing ability, former India cricketer Abhishek Nayar said that Rinku has shown the maturity of a player who seems to be playing international cricket for a long time.
“It takes a lot of character. We speak about someone, who has done it in the IPL and domestic cricket. Just to see Rinku hold his nerve and to have the have the composure shows that he has grown leaps and bounds,” Nayar was quoted as saying on Jio Cinema.
“It’s the third time he has done this for India, the third time India needed him to do something special and he turned up. He hasn’t played international cricket for 5-7 years, but has the maturity and skillet of someone who has played that long,” he added.
Nayar also went on to say that India have found a new finisher in Rinku after the likes of MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya.
“It tells you that he has mastered the art of finishing an innings. It’s not easy and it’s been a while that Hardik and MS Dhoni did that for us, but post that, there’s no one, who has played the finisher’s role so well. It’s not just the runs he gets, but the way he gets them. There is a certain calm and composure about the way he’s playing his cricket,” he remarked.
With this victory, India took a 1-0 lead over Australia in the five-match T20I series. The second T20I will be played in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday (November 26).