The concept of pacing an innings is not immediately associated with T20s. This gets noticed only after it has been done. Rinku Singh’s effort in the second T20I against South Africa was an example. It did not win India the rain-truncated match. But, it changed perceptions about Rinku the batter, and provided the selectors fresh food for thought.
T20 specialists emerging from the Indian Premier League (IPL) often get branded. They become situation-specific players. Rinku got labelled as a finisher. His skills came into play during the closing stages. In the IPL and in 10 T20I appearances before this one, he had made a name for himself in that role.
In the IPL stunner where he hit five sixes in the last five balls of the match, Rinku faced 21 deliveries. Prior to the game in Gqeberha (previously known as Port Elizabeth), the most number of balls he had played in a T20I was 29. He made 46 in that game against Australia. A few days before that, he had made 31 not out off nine.
It takes a special kind of skill set and mental preparation to blast from the first ball. Rinku, who has a strike-rate of 180-plus in T20Is, had shown this expertise. It has endeared him to fans, made him an asset for the Kolkata Knight Riders and brought him into the national team.
There was a possible flip side. It was the danger of Rinku getting typecast as a 15-ball specialist. This has happened in the IPL. Dinesh Karthik, at one stage in his long career became an end-over expert, not sought in situations demanding a batter to play more deliveries. Suryakumar Yadav had developed a similar reputation playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, before he moved to Mumbai Indians and redefined himself.
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About six months before the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US, Rinku played an innings which should dispel that notion about him. He came into bat at three down in the sixth over. The situation called for building. Finishing skills were not required. It was the polar opposite of the role Rinku had been hitherto assigned.
That’s why this was the most challenging assignment of Rinku’s brief international career. He had to resort to Plan B. A 15 or 20 off eight or 10 balls was a given. Oppositions across the world were waiting to see if he could be effective when asked to spend a longer period of time at the wicket, out of his supposed comfort zone.
The 39-ball 68 not out against a lively attack in testing conditions emphatically showed that Rinku could operate in different gears, according to the requirement of the moment. He was on nine after 10 balls and 18 after 16. Suryakumar was in his element and Rinku was not pressed into attacking early on. This was where he had to change his game.
The innings containing nine fours and two sixes was a testament of his ability to do that. The sixes came off the last two deliveries he faced. Awareness of the situation was as evident in those heaves as power, bat speed and footwork. He fulfilled his duties as a finisher. Before that, he built the platform for that finish.
The rise of this T20 wonder as a multi-speciality batter, who has a first-class average of 57-plus, comes at a crucial time in India’s preparations for another World Cup.
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