File image of Rinku Singh.© AFP

Rinku Singh will start his captaincy stint by leading Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India’s 50-over domestic competition, which will begin on December 21, ESPN Cricinfo reported. He has taken over captaincy from seasoned pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who led the side in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Under Bhuvneshwar’s captaincy, UP suffered a loss against Delhi in the quarter-finals. It will be Rinku’s first stint of leading a state team at the senior level. He has had a taste of captaincy while leading Meerut Mavericks to the UPT20 League title. During the campaign, he majorly played the role of a finished and racked up 210 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 161.54.

“It was a big opportunity for me to lead Meerut Mavericks in the UPT20 League, and I am happy that I could deliver. I really enjoyed captaincy as it allowed me to learn many things,” Rinku said ahead of their Vijay Hazare Trophy opener, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

“I did try my hand at bowling [offspin] too at the UPT20 league. Present-day cricket demands a full package – a cricketer who can bat, bowl and field. Now, I am focusing on my bowling too. As captain of Uttar Pradesh, I have got a bigger role to play, and I’m ready for this,” he added.

Rinku’s ascendancy to leadership role comes at a time when the three-time IPL champions, KKR, are mulling over their potential captaincy options for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

He was retained by the franchise alongside Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana before the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah.

“I am not thinking too much about the captaincy of KKR in the new IPL season. I am focused on my plans for Uttar Pradesh, as I want my team to regain the trophy we had won for the first time in 2015-16,” Rinku added.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy could assist the Indian management in identifying the talent, which could play a part in India’s cause in next year’s ICC Champions Trophy.

Since the conclusion of the T20 World Cup, Rinku has become a regular in the format but is still to earn a spot in the ODI format.

Rinku has featured in two ODIs for India and holds pretty impressive List-A numbers. The southpaw has garnered 1,899 runs in 52 innings, averaging 48.69 while striking at 94.8. His excellent numbers include one hundred and 17 half-centuries.

“I believe in God. I didn’t even think of being part of Team India when I struck five consecutive sixes in the IPL last year. That turned out to be the biggest game-changer in my life. Even now, I feel that if God has decided something for me, I will get that surely. But at the same time, I also need to work hard on my job,” he remarked.

Rinku Singh’s batting slot and circumspect approach must be a cause of concern for the India team going into the deciding fourth T20I against South Africa as the side aims for another bilateral series victory in Johannesburg Friday. Centuries by Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma on either side of an inept batting performance has kept India’s nose ahead in the series and team would want a more collective batting effort to clinch it 3-1. The Wanderers ‘Bull Ring’ has always been a happy hunting ground for India, where they won the 2007 T20 World Cup final against Pakistan.

Even during the previous T20I series a year back, skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s last international hundred till date came at this very stadium and that too in a winning cause.

The Indian captain, who enjoys a staggering victory percentage of 81.25, having come up trumps in 13 out of the 16 matches, would like to do one better compared to the last series in the Rainbow Nation which had ended in a 1-1 draw with one game being washed out.

Curious case of Rinku Singh

Rinku, one of the finest exponents of T20 cricket has suddenly gone off the boil in the past few months, reasons of which aren’t exactly clear and it wouldn’t be lost on the skipper and interim head coach VVS Laxman.

On the face of it, it seems that his batting position and use as a floater at number six and seven isn’t helping the Aligarh man’s cause.

The next T20 World Cup in India is still some distance away in 2026 and Surya, as a skipper, has enough time to dissect and put things back on track for the man, who is too precious to be lost due to lack of clarity.

In the current series, Rinku came in at number six in two games and number seven in another and has managed just 28 runs.

The scores 11, 9 and 8 shouldn’t be taken in isolation looking at where he is coming in to bat but when the number of balls (34) he has taken to the score runs is taken into consideration, it becomes worrisome.

Even during the last IPL Rinku got to play a total of 113 balls in 15 games for KKR: roughly 7.5 deliveries per game.

Being seen strictly as a specialist “finisher” Rinku, on an average, would get to face 10 balls in an innings. The strategy would have been devised to help the India team but of late it has eroded some of southpaw’s confidence as he seems to be caught between attacking and playing second fiddle.

Most of Rinku’s better efforts have come when he has batted at number five but in a line-up where Sanju Samson is settling as an opener and Tilak Varma has staked claim as a No. 3, it might be difficult for Rinku to be promoted ahead of Hardik Pandya. It is an issue that team think-tank would do better to solve at earliest.

Team Combination

India have used 12 out of their 15 players in the first three games and it would be interesting to see if one among the two uncapped pacers Yash Dayal or Vysakh Vijaykumar gets a debut cap in case the pitch warrants an extra specialist speedster. For Samson, he would like to forget that he is turning into Marco Jansen’s ‘bunny’ after back-to-back failures.

In the final game, it wouldn’t be a bad option for skipper Surya to check on Ramandeep Singh’s steady medium pace as he can be an asset with multiple skills, including ability to field at all positions save keeping.

Squads: India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya. Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh. Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen. Heinrich Klaasen, Patrick Kruger. Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton. Andile Simelane. Lutho Sipamla, Tristan Stubbs.

Match Starts: 8:30 pm.

With Sri Lanka needing nine runs to win off 12 balls, India summoned Rinku Singh to press his part-time off-spin bowling into action. Rinku, bowling for the first time in T20Is, gave away only three runs while picking two wickets in a superb 19th over. There was more out-of-the-box thinking in store as captain Suryakumar Yadav brought himself on to bowl the last over, defended five runs by picking up two wickets and sent the game to a Super Over, where India won to seal a 3-0 triumph.

“I have a lot of wickets in domestic cricket. It’s not like that, and I even have a wicket in ODIs. I had been informed by Surya to be ready for bowling in the series. Though I didn’t bowl in the run-up to this game, Surya bhai had told me to keep practising my bowling and asked me to do it during warm-up.”

“When the game was on, I did not expect that I would be asked to bowl, as the situation was totally neck-and-neck. Then he asked me to roll my arm over and once I started to bowl, it was God’s plan – two wickets,” said Rinku in a video posted by BCCI on their ‘X’ account.

Off-spinner Washington Sundar, who starred with an all-round performance (25 runs, 2-23) and restricted Sri Lanka to just two runs in the Super Over, was also in awe of Suryakumar’s inventiveness.

“It was a great decision by Surya first of all to bring in Rinku (in the 19th over). Rinku makes things very difficult for us when he bowls in the nets and now he’s shown that in this game as well.”

“For Surya to bring himself into one of the most crunch situations, and almost winning the game for the team was amazing. Honestly, I was just focusing on what I wanted to do against those batters.”

“It was a great opportunity given to me, especially to win the game for my country. I don’t know how many people would get the opportunity to do that every now and then,” he said.

Sairaj Bahutule, India’s bowling coach on the tour, said one can expect surprises with Suryakumar as the captain of the T20I team. “The way I think Surya operates; you can never be short of surprises. It was a brave decision again.”

“The only learning from this is that all the batters should be bowling and on wickets like this, you might need to bowl that one over, which is crucial. We pushed ourselves to get into the Super Over and Washy did the job for us.”

Suryakumar said he knew of the ways to take the game deep and win it from there, albeit with the ball and as the captain. “I have featured in these close games previously under other captains. It means that I have seen how they have used bowlers to take matches to the last ball of the final over in many ways.”

“I had said to Riyan and Rinku to keep bowling in the nets, as the wickets here are such that if they are dry, then you are needed to roll your arm over for a few overs. When it was 30 needed off 30 balls, I was reminded of what happened a month ago (in the T20 World Cup final). That wicket was easy, but this one was turning.”

“We thought that if we bowl one-two tight overs and get a wicket or two, it will create pressure and keep them away from winning the match. Taking that out-of-the-box call came into my mind, and I took it. I do really like my high-risk, high-reward system and it worked well.”

He signed off by citing his vast experience before playing internationally came in handy at Pallekele.

“I have played lots of local cricket, domestic cricket, which really teaches you a lot about how to get your runs and where to contain them while playing international cricket. All of those learnings came from the grassroots levels, and I am using all of that skill, apart from seeing how Rohit bhai, Virat bhai and Mahi bhai used to do it.”