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2023 has been the year for Rinku Singh. After a stellar IPL season for Kolkata Knight Riders, where he proved his worth as a T20 batter, Rinku was slotted into the Indian team and subsequently into the T20 World Cup plans as well after he continued playing his attacking brand of cricket even on the international stage.
Such has been the sublime form of Rinku that even the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had nothing but absolute praise for India’s new T20 sensation.
Having made his debut in the Ireland series in August, Rinku, who plays the role of a finisher in T20 cricket, scored 180 runs in 86 balls across six innings. 105 of those runs came in the recently-concluded series against Australia at home, where he scored at a strike rate of 175, with 13 boundaries and four sixes.
Speaking to Star Sports on the sidelines of the washed out opening T20I game between India and South Africa in Durban, Gavaskar admitted that Rinku might not be one of those exceptionally gifted cricketers, but it has been his belief and consistency that made him crack into the Indian team.
“Talent – it’s not given to everybody. You can love the game. You can play all day, but sometimes you know you might not quite have the talent, but he has the belief that he could do it, and that’s what he’s done over the last 2-3 years. Again here in the IPL, he was in and out of a lot of teams when he finally got the opportunity and the way he grabbed it (was amazing),” Gavaskar said.
With Rinku already being compared to the legendary Yuvraj Singh amid his stellar form, Gavaskar believes at even if the youngster can emulate a fraction of what the two-time World Cup winner achieved, it would be wonderful for Indian cricket.
“And now he’s part of an India team. And now there’s so much, so many high expectations of them. They are now expecting him to be another Yuvraj Singh. Rinku Singh – Yuvraj Singh. So if you can do even a fraction of what Yuvraj did for Indian cricket, then he will have done wonderfully well,” the former India captain said.
India will play their second T20I game against South Africa on Tuesday in Port Elizabeth.
