Kolkata Knight Riders have spent the past fortnight doing the quiet, unflashy work coaches often talk about but few notice. The most visible dividend is Rinku Singh. After opening IPL 2026 with scores of 4, 1 and 6, the left-hander has rattled off 207 runs in four trips to the crease, has not been dismissed once and is scoring at 172. Wednesday’s unbeaten 49 off 29 balls at Raipur lifted KKR to 192 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru – a total that looked 15 short only because the surface played far better than it had when Mumbai met RCB three nights earlier.
Head coach Abhishek Nayar broke down the turnaround in plain terms.
“One of the things we tried when we were not doing so well was a lot of centre-wicket practice to bring the confidence back,” Nayar explained after KKR’s loss. “Same with Varun [Chakravarthy], same with Rinku, because they were two really important players for us and didn’t start the tournament well.”
That centre-practice was married to a small but significant technical tweak.
“If you would have noticed, his initial movement changed; he’s now walking across compared to before. So we kind of figured that out, maybe that can help him, and he’s never done that, so we added that to his batting. It helped him.”
The alteration is basically a new trigger movement – a half-step across his stumps to get hips and hands moving together. It is not revolutionary, yet it has restored the timing that made Rinku a cult hero last season. Coaches still call it a “low-risk, high-reward” move because the front pad is clear and the bat swing stays free.
Technique, though, was only half the brief.
“Just having access to grounds and making sure we spent some time in the heat kind of helped,” Nayar said. “Getting his mind back into the belief systems that he can clear the boundary, he can hit those fours and sixes, and what he can do technically and tactically to actually do that. So a lot of groundwork.”
That mental work has mirrored the wider dressing-room mood. KKR have won four of their last five matches and, while they sit eighth with nine points from 11, three home fixtures keep the play-offs in view. Nayar credits consistency more than any single tactical switch.
“I think, to be honest with you, through and through from the inception of the tournament, the one thing that we decided collectively was to be very consistent,” he said. “Consistent in how we approach our processes as a team.”
He admits that is harder than it sounds in a tournament where every low score is clipped, posted and dissected within minutes.
“Making sure the environment, which I feel in the IPL is one of the hardest things to maintain with all the outside noise and pressure. Making sure we create that environment for the guys where they feel like they can be themselves. Because sometimes this tournament can take that away from you.”
The re-emergence of Chakravarthy – 11 wickets in five games after a patchy first half – supports the idea that calm surroundings can rescue form. So does Nitish Rana’s move back into the middle order to ease the load on Andre Russell, who has been nursing a sore knee.
For Rinku, the numbers tell only part of the story. Four straight not-outs means he is spending time in the middle, seeing spells from both quicks and spinners, and finishing innings rather than merely cameoing. A sample size of four matches is small, yet bowlers have already adjusted: fuller yorkers, wider lines to deny his preferred arc over mid-wicket, and short balls aimed at the ribs. The left-hander’s next test is answering those changes, preferably without losing the trigger that has brought him here.
KKR know the margin for error is gone. Three wins are required; net run-rate may still come into play. What they do have, heading into a run of Eden Gardens fixtures, is a finisher rediscovering what made him indispensable. It has taken centre-wicket sessions in 40-degree heat, a shuffled front foot and a few long chats, but the evidence is back on the scoreboard.
