Rinku Singh has become the talk of the town ever since his blazing knock helped the Kolkata Knight Riders thump defending champions Gujarat Titans by three wickets. Rashid Khan’s hat-trick in the 17th over seemed to be the end of the road for KKR but Rinku had his own plans. With 28 runs needed off the last 5 deliveries, he smashed five consecutive sixes to snatch the victory away from GT’s jaws.
This wasn’t the first instance when Rinku rose to the occasion. Last season, he fought hard in a must-win game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) but got out for 40 on the penultimate delivery of the KKR innings. But this year, he managed to cross the finish line.
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But the superstar from Uttar Pradesh had toil hard to make it to this level. In an exclusive conversation on JioCinema’s daily show ‘#AAKASHVANI,’ hosted by Aakash Chopra, Rinku spoke about his initial battles and how his family did not support his aspirations of being a cricketer.
“At that time, I went to Kanpur to play for the first time in my hostel tournament and my mother gave me ₹1000 and supported me but my father used to beat me whenever I used to play,” Rinku admitted.
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Rinku said his father insisted that he focused on getting a job rather than playing cricket which after a point his mother aligned to.
“My brother used to work in a coaching centre as a cleaner and he took me there for a job - I was given the job to clean early in the morning and leave so that nobody would get to know. But I didn’t like the job, so I left it and came back to focus on cricket,” Singh recalled.
Rinku further elaborated on his first successful tournament as a cricketer.
“We were playing against the Delhi Public School team and, I really batted well in that match scoring around 70 in a winning cause. So, the owner of the DPS, Swapnil Jain, asked me to join his team,” Sonu said.
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Rinku also spoke about how much KKR buying him in the IPL auctions aided him and his family.
“It was very important for me because I didn’t expect that I will go for that much money. I thought that I will go to Mumbai for some 20-25 Lakhs but that price kept on getting high and reached 80 Lakhs. So, my family was very happy and with that 80 Lakhs I got our house constructed and then I bought a car for my father because he wanted a car for a long time. So, my father was happy, and my family was as well,” Singh concluded.
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