Lucknow: Just four months after leading the Meerut Mavericks to a T20 league championship, Rinku Singh has been appointed as the captain of Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, kicking off this Saturday.

Before the Duleep Trophy last September, Rinku made sure the Meerut Mavericks finished at the top of the second season of the Uttar Pradesh Twenty20 League in Lucknow. He racked up 210 runs, including a blistering 12-ball 39, with 15 fours and 11 sixes, boasting a strike rate of 161.54. On top of that, he took seven wickets, three of which came in a single over, with an average of 11.71 over nine matches.

This was Rinku's first time captaining a team in the UPT20 League, serving as a sort of trial run for him. The Uttar Pradesh selection committee, led by Praveen Kumar, decided it was the right moment to give Rinku the captaincy, taking over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Rinku shared on Thursday how leading the Meerut Mavericks in the UPT20 League was a fantastic opportunity for him, and he’s thrilled with how it turned out. He really enjoyed being captain because it taught him a lot.

He also mentioned that he gave bowling a shot during the UPT20L. “These days, you need to be a complete player—someone who can bat, bowl, and field,” he noted. “I’m putting more focus on my bowling now. As the captain of Uttar Pradesh, I have a bigger role to fill, and I’m all set for it.”

Since hitting five back-to-back sixes for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in April 2023 during the IPL, Rinku has been a regular in India’s T20 squad. He could be in the running, along with Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane, to lead the franchise next season, but he’s not thinking about that right now.

I'm not really stressing about the captaincy of KKR for the upcoming IPL season. My main focus is on my plans for Uttar Pradesh because I want us to bring back the trophy we won for the first time in 2015-16, he mentioned.

Rinku, who was the top scorer for Uttar Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy with 277 runs at a strike rate of 152.19, also ranked third in runs for the team during the first half of the Ranji Trophy with 157 runs. He sees the 50-over tournament as a great chance to gear up for future white-ball cricket.

“I have faith in God. I never even considered being part of Team India when I hit five consecutive sixes in the IPL last year. That moment changed everything for me. Even now, I believe that if something is meant for me, it will happen, but I also know I need to put in the effort,” Rinku said.

Rinku's life took a turn for the better when KKR picked him up for ₹80 lakh at the IPL 2018 auction, especially since his family was facing financial difficulties. By 2022, he had become KKR’s top run-scorer, racking up 474 runs with an impressive strike rate of 149.52.

He’s also shown his skills in other formats. During the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, he was a lifesaver for Uttar Pradesh, scoring a total of 953 runs at an average of 105.88. In the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he notched up four fifties and a century in just six innings.

Rinku made his T20I debut in 2023 and quickly made a name for himself as a finisher. Later that same year, he stepped onto the ODI stage. He even took a wicket in his first over in ODIs and snagged two in his first over in T20Is with his part-time off-spin.

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