Nayar's nurture frees up Rinku's nature

Around seven months ago, when Rinku Singh was still in the afterglow of a once-in-a-lifetime innings in the Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders product was asked about his knock. 

“It was one of those days. It was nice,” was his response to belting five sixes in an over during an improbable win over Gujarat Titans. 

The youngster from Aligarh was then asked about the potential impact of the unbeaten 48 from 21 balls on his future.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I am glad I had the chance to do it,” was his reaction.

At this point, fame was new to Rinku, and he wasn’t particularly comfortable offering reactions for ‘doing his job’. 

After all, for four years before that, he was but a bearded young man running onto the field with drinks in hand or chipping in as a substitute fielder. 

Rinku had played 17 games for KKR at this point and scored 251 runs so no one knew what this youngster could do because the sample size wasn’t big enough, and he just wasn’t good enough if one were to infer quality from the data set available.  

If irrelevance was hard enough to digest, Rinku ended up tearing his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in 2021. 

An injury of such severity would have put paid hopes of many a cricketer, but KKR’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar felt Rinku had plenty to offer still. Rinku was but 24-years-old at the time, and he had a family to feed.  

So, Nayar insisted that Rinku stay with him at his Mumbai residence and recover in time for the 2023 season of the IPL. Nayar even convinced KKR owner Venky Mysore to persist with Rinku, repurchasing him for Rs 55 lakh in 2022.  

Nayar has a chronicled record of offering a caring touch to his Mumbai wards when he was with the State team. “Nayar was the best at getting the best out of cricketers,” said then-Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare a few years ago. “He would always take people home and help them in any way he could. He is special.” 

So, whatever Nayar was concocting at home always seemed to work because it inevitably ended up giving young talent in Mumbai the direction they needed. Though not from the same neck of the woods, Rinku would also benefit from this guidance.  

Result: 474 runs from 14 matches at an average of 59.25 and a strike rate of 142.53, including six unbeaten knocks. That was Rinku’s 2023 IPL!

In the months that followed, Rinku was injected into the Indian team. Since making his debut against Ireland in August, he has featured in 10 games, scoring 180 runs at an average of 60 and a strike rate of 187.50. 

“When I saw Rinku come in to bat in the last game, the composure he showed was brilliant. It reminded me of someone. Everyone knows the answer,” said Indian T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav after Rinku flat-batted an unbeaten 31 runs from nine balls against Australia in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The ‘someone’ Suryakumar was referring to was MS Dhoni. 

Perhaps we need to wait a tad longer before anointing Rinku with that honour, if at all, but his pyrotechnics have already earned the tag of ‘contender’ for a spot in the Indian side travelling to the West Indies for the T20 World Cup. 

Not bad for someone who was one decision away from sweeping the streets of Aligarh to assist his humble family in making ends meet a few years ago!

“We come from a humble background. My father (Khanchandra Singh) used to work delivering LPG cylinders. My mother (Bina Devi) is a housewife, and we stay in a small room in the ground that has these cylinders,” Rinku had told DH. 

Khanchandra wasn’t a big fan of Rinku pursuing cricket, saying someone had to run the house and bring in the money. Bina, however, wasn’t about to let poverty come in the way of a son with a dream. “She used to borrow money from neighbours so I could play,” he said. “We have paid them all back. Now, to start building a new house.”

It’s a story which bears a resemblance to Dhoni’s. This perhaps also explains why Rinku is as calm and composed when pushed to duress. See, the two had nothing to lose and gave it their all to make it this far.  

Dhoni’s modus operandi didn’t change even when he had something to lose in time to come. Rinku’s might, but then again, he has Nayar on his side so best to let time and the southpaw's bat, do the talking.