This happens to be a classical rag to riches story! The 20-year-old Rinku Singh is the newest recruit of the Kolkata Knight Riders. With a base price of Rs 20 lakh, the explosive left-handed opener was lapped up by KKR for Rs 80 lakh.
Though it is not the first time that young Rinku has been picked up by an IPL franchise because he was bought by the Kings XI Punjab for his base price of Rs 10 lakh in 2017.
Son of an LPG cylinder delivery man, Rinku lives with his family of nine inside an LPG Company compound. While one of his five brothers drives an auto-rickshaw, another works at a tuition centre; his 16-year-old brother Jeetu also plays cricket.
Rinku has represented Uttar Pradesh in all three formats of the game since making his T20 debut during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament in 2014. He has scored a total of 375 runs in 27 T20s at a strike rate of 133.45 and average of 19.73.
There was a bid-war at the auction table over Rinku as Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders tussled it out to get the all-rounder on board. Rinku started playing cricket way back in 2009 and in the subsequent three years, he made it to the Uttar Pradesh U-16 as well as the U-19 squad.
Rinku shot to fame when he smashed 154 runs in a match at Agra, drawing early attention to his talent. He reinforced his abilities in 2014 during the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he hit 206 and 154 runs in two matches. He finally made it to the UP Ranji Trophy team in 2016 and recently played in Delhi.
