Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star Rinku Singh has failed to recreate his explosive self so far in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) season. After a lack of opportunities batting lower down the order and No.6 and No.7 predominantly for the past few seasons, he has been promoted to No.5 in IPL 2026.
However, he has not looked as dangerous with scores of 33*(21) vs Mumbai Indians and 35(25) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). A player who had once hit five consecutive sixes in the final over to propel his side to a win, Rinku had an excellent chance to prove his credentials against SRH last night (April 2) when KKR was tasked with chasing down a big total of 227.
Rinku even walked out to bat in the powerplay with enough time to influence the game and had the chance to be a match-winner. The dynamic left-hander made a steady start but failed to take on the attack to the opposition and navigate the middle overs successfully.
Dissecting the flaws in Rinku’s batting, former India cricketers Irfan Pathan and Sanjay Bangar echoed on what could be done to fix them.
Speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, the veteran Indian duo said,
Irfan Pathan said, “He likes pace, he likes the ball coming onto the bat. He is not a power-hitter, he’s not a big unit. He likes the pace so he can use the pace. Against spinners, he’s slightly limited. He doesn’t have that range, what you talk about against quality spinners. Like sweep shot, using the feet, talk about long on and midwicket gap needs to be utilised. Over covers is another important area. Can he cut really late? That’s another important area as well. So if you talk about the range against spinners, I think he’s lacking and needs to work on that.”
Batting expert Sanjay Bangar added, “I feel he’s too side on as far as playing in T20 is concerned. (On facing Shivang Kumar) Play the slog sweep or play the sweep and try and force the bowler to do something different. That is an aspect wherein if he can work on that particular area, how can he open up?”
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While Rinku has been an excellent pace hitter, he has always been limited against spin. Batting up the order now means he will need to tackle more of slower deliveries and will need to add more strokes in repertoire whereas he was mostly tackling pacers in death overs while batting low.
A quick evaluation of his numbers against pace and spin clearly highlights his struggles. Against pace, Rinku has a strike rate of 172.7 with a balls per boundary (bpb) of 6.40 which drastically comes down to against spin where his hitting rate is 120.0 and the bpb goes up to 11.96.
Furthermore, the side one stance of Rinku limits him from opening up to spinners and give himself a bigger hitting radar.
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