New Delhi:
Rinku Singh to Captain Uttar Pradesh: Rinku Singh has been made the captain of the Uttar Pradesh team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament starting from December 21. He has replaced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who captained the team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This will be the first time that Rinku will captain a state team at the senior level. Earlier, he had made Meerut Mavericks win the title of UP T20 League.
Expressing happiness over her captaincy, Rinku said, “Leading in the UP T20 League was a big opportunity for me. I got to learn a lot from it. I also tried bowling (off spin) in the UP T20 League. Present-day cricket is a complete Demands a cricketer who can do all three: batting, bowling and fielding. Now I am focusing on my bowling as the captain of Uttar Pradesh. The responsibility has increased and I am fully ready for it.”
Rinku has got the charge of captaincy at a time when his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders is considering choosing the captain for the IPL 2025 season. However, Rinku said that currently his focus is on making the Uttar Pradesh team win the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
He said, “I am not thinking much about captaining KKR in the new IPL season. I am focusing on my plans so that the Uttar Pradesh team can again win the trophy which we won for the first time in 2015-16. I won.”
This tournament will help the selectors to decide India’s ODI team for the Champions Trophy to be held in February. Rinku has been a regular member of the Indian team in T20 International matches since the World Cup this year. He has played only two ODI matches so far. He made his ODI debut exactly a year ago in South Africa.
Rinku’s List-A figures are very impressive. He has scored a total of 1899 runs in 52 innings at an average of 48.69 and strike rate of 94.8, which includes one century and 17 half-centuries. However, Rinku is not seeing this tournament as an opportunity to prove his worth.
He said, “I have faith in God. When I hit five sixes in a row in the IPL last year, I never thought that I would be a part of the Indian team. That proved to be the biggest turning point in my life. Even today I feel That if God has decided something for me, then I will definitely get it, but for this I will have to continue my hard work.”
The Uttar Pradesh team will start its campaign against Jammu and Kashmir on 21st December. After this they have to play matches against Mizoram (23 December), Tamil Nadu (26 December), Chhattisgarh (28 December), Chandigarh (31 December) and Vidarbha (3 January). All matches will be played in Visakhapatnam.
