Rinku Singh has a realistic chance of being named Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Having been with KKR since 2018, Rinku has become invaluable to the Knights and was even named their top retention (Rs 18 crore) before the auction.
KKR captaincy not on Rinku Singh’s mind
Earlier this week, he was announced as the captain of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2024-25. This further increased talks around Rinku’s potential captaincy candidacy. But the southpaw doesn’t have KKR on his mind right now. He’s instead focused on starting his captaincy tenure with a bang and leading UP to their first VHT title since the 2015-2016 season.
“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 said before UP’s VHT opener against Manipur.
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Rinku Singh, ready for UP captaincy challenge
The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) had decided to give Rinku Singh the leadership thinking about the future as age is catching up with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who’s 34. However, this won’t be Rinku’s first rodeo. He may have not led a senior team in domestic cricket but did lead the Meerut Mavericks to the UPT20 League title earlier in the year.
“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. 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.” Rinku added.
Uttar Pradesh’s squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25
Rinku Singh (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Madhav Kaushik, Karan Sharma, Priyam Garg, Nitish Rana, Abhishek Goswami, Akshadeep Nath, Aryan Juyal, Aradhya Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Kritagya Kumar Singh, Vipraj Nigam, Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi, Aquib Khan, Atal Behari Rai, Kartikya Jaiswal, Vineet Panwar.
