This is the first time he will captain a state team at the senior level.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will have to name a new leader for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) season, after letting go off their previous skipper Shreyas Iyer. While names like Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane have been floating around as the franchise’s next captaincy choice, another name is set to get added to it.
Talented middle-order batter and finisher Rinku Singh might stake a claim for the KKR captaincy after being named the new leader of his state team Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT).
The 27-year-old takes over the captaincy reins from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who led UP at the recently-concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), where they lost to Delhi in the quarter-final.
Notably, this is also the first time that Rinku will captain a state team at the senior level. Earlier this year, he played a pivotal role in guiding the Meerut Mavericks to victory in the UPT20 League, amassing 210 runs across nine innings with an impressive strike rate of 161.54, primarily excelling as a finisher.
Rinku’s recent promotion within the UP team coincides with KKR’s ongoing deliberations over their captaincy choices for IPL 2025. A part of the KKR franchise since 2018, he was retained ahead of the mega auction in November alongside Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, and Ramandeep Singh.
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Speaking about his ambitions for KKR captaincy, Rinku said ahead of the VHT opener,
“I am not thinking too much about the captaincy of KKR in the new IPL season. I am focused on my plans for Uttar Pradesh, as I want my team to regain the trophy we had won for the first time in 2015-16.”
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