Veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was all praise for Rinku Singh. He called the youngster a “left-handed Dhoni”, lauding his composure on the field. Rinku Singh was one of India’s top performers in the recently concluded T20I series against Afghanistan.
The Uttar Pradesh cricketer has had an impressive start to his International career. He has played a pivotal role in India’s series win against Afghanistan. Rinku slammed an unbeaten 69 off 39 deliveries in the third T20I. He put on a valuable partnership of 190 runs with the Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma. India eventually won the match in the second Super Over. In a video on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel, the Indian spinner hailed Rinku Singh for his composure in crunch situations. He said,
“He is somebody I’d call a left-handed Dhoni. I can’t compare him to Dhoni just yet because Dhoni is too big. But, I am talking about the composure that he brings. He has been consistently scoring buckets of runs for UP and broke his way into the Indian team.”
Rohit Sharma 🤝 Rinku Singh
OuR’RR’ 😎 💪#TeamIndia | #INDvAFG | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @ImRo45 | @rinkusingh235 pic.twitter.com/SfKSl07JoE
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 17, 2024
The composure doesn’t change: Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin further shared an anecdote about Rinku Singh’s career which is a testament to his dedication towards the game. He revealed that the youngster kept working hard even when he was on the bench for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Rinku had a brilliant 2023 Indian Premier League season and then was drafted into the Indian team. He has scored 356 runs at an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.23 in eleven T20Is so far.
“He was on the KKR bench for many years. People used to tell me that, when he was at KKR, even though he couldn’t get the chance to bat at practice, he collected all the balls that batters hit in throwdowns and gave them back to the bowler,” Ashwin said.
“Since then, he has been with the franchise for so long, put in the hard work for UP and showed that he’s always available to get to the Indian team out of a tricky situation or finish an innings. The composure doesn’t change whether the team is batting first or chasing. His composure towards the back end of the innings is a bonus,” he added.
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