Rinku Singh has been creating quite a buzz this year in the shortest format of the game. It all began with finishing games for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and now, he has been doing the same thing for Team India. On Thursday, the left-hander sealed a 2-wicket win for India in the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam with a six off the last ball when India needed just a run to win. But the maximum doesn’t count as Sean Abbot had overstepped and India won the game with a no-ball.
Though the six didn’t count, it was Rinku Singh’s temperament that surely did. And now it seems that the left-hander is setting finishing goals for his teammates as well. Another lefty in the squad, Tilak Varma says he’s learning the skills from the youngster from Aligarh.
“I am learning how to finish games from Rinku Singh, as he is doing it consistently for India. I also want to do and hopefully, in coming matches, I will be doing that,” Tilak said ahead of India’s second T20 International in the five-match series.
Tilak has already made an impression in the 11 T20Is he has played for the country, with two half-centuries and a strike-rate of 140-plus to his credit.
“There is no pressure of expectation on me. I just have a role and I have to fulfil that role for the team. My role at No. 5 is, if it’s in my arc, I will go for it or else just rotate the strike,” he said.
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He then explained what he was asked to do in the last game.
“Last match, in that situation a leg-spinner was bowling, I wanted to take charge as we needed 10 per over in that situation, so it was decided I would go at the leg-spinner and for a fast bowler, settled batsman Surya bhai was batting,” he said.
While his main aim is to remain consistent, Tilak also said that he hasn’t worked on any specific areas during the time the senior team was busy playing the ODI World Cup.
“Before this series, I played in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy and my performance was good and I was confident, so I haven’t worked in any specific areas but the aim is to continue the good form,” said Tilak, who was his team’s top run-getter with 288 runs at a healthy strike-rate of 143, which also included a hundred and a fifty.