There’s no magic formula in cricket, yet every now and then you see a batter flip a switch. Rinku Singh has done just that for Kolkata Knight Riders, and the dressing-room is rather relieved.
At the start of April, the left-hander looked scratchy. Three of his first five scores read 4, 1 and 6. By mid-May he has rattled off 207 runs in four digs, has not been out once and is motoring at a strike rate of 172. The latest instalment – 49 not out from 29 balls – nudged KKR to 192 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur, a surface that played far truer than it had during the earlier RCB-Mumbai game.
Head coach Abhishek Nayar, never one to hide the grind behind the gloss, explained the change in simple 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,” he said. “Same with Varun [Chakravarthy], same with Rinku, because they were two really important players for us and didn’t start the tournament well.”
The routine was unglamorous: take the boys away from side nets, stick them in the middle, let them visualise match scenarios. A second thread, Nayar revealed, was technical. “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.”
In plain speak, Rinku’s trigger is now a shuffle towards off, giving him a stable base to access anything straight. It is a small adjustment – the sort many professionals toy with during quiet evenings – yet it has unclogged his stroke-play at the death.
Technique, though, was only half the brief. Nayar was equally concerned about the batter’s headspace. “Just having access to grounds and making sure we spent some time in the heat kind of helped,” he 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.”
Those sessions, by all accounts, were sweaty and largely untelevised. They also coincided with a gentle up-tick in KKR’s campaign. The team have won four of their last five matches, keeping themselves in playoff contention – just – despite Wednesday night’s defeat. They sit eighth, with nine points from 11, and need to sweep a trio of home fixtures to stay alive.
Environment, Nayar insisted, has been the glue. “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 noted. “Consistent in how we approach our processes as a team. 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.”
It is easy, from the outside, to forget the strain short-format cricket can pile onto reputations. A single low score is clipped, shared and debated before the player has found the shower. Social media feeds become feedback loops. Nayar has seen it up close. “I know from the outside you don’t understand what a player goes through, but it’s really hard for an individual to not have a good game and come back,” he said earlier in the season, almost as a plea for empathy.
Rinku, for his part, has not said much. Those inside KKR say his work ethic never dipped; he simply wanted a blueprint that felt natural. The shuffle across the crease appears to be that cue. Fielders now spread, captains hesitate, twos turn into fours. Not a reinvention, merely an alignment.
Whether it will carry through the next fortnight – and, crucially, into knock-out cricket – remains the lingering question. For now, Knight Riders have their finisher back, and in a competition often decided in the final 20 deliveries, that is no small thing.
