Explosive India batsman Linku Singh on Friday was named captain of Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, his first captaincy at the senior state level. He takes over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who led the team to victory in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Rinku led Meerut Mavericks to the UPT20 league title earlier this year and he is eager to make the most of the opportunity. He scored 210 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 161.54, largely as a tournament finisher.
“Leading Meerut Mavericks in the UPT20 league is a great opportunity for me and I am happy to be able to achieve it,” Rinku was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “I really enjoy being the captain because it allows me to Learned a lot.”
In the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders’ designated finisher Linku has been retained by the franchise along with Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy and Ramandeep Singh.
The defending champions will have a new captain this season after releasing Shreyas Iyer, who has now joined Kings XI Punjab.
In this scenario, Rinku’s captaincy will be the focus of the domestic one-day series as KKR also have the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer as potential captains in the next IPL.
“I haven’t thought too much about KKR’s captaincy in the new IPL season,” Rinku said. “I am focused on Uttar Pradesh’s plans as I want my team to regain the trophy we first won in 2015-16.”
The national selectors will take a closer look at the Vijay Hazare Trophy to finalize the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy to be held in February-March next year.
While Rinku has become a regular in India’s T20Is, he made his debut in South Africa a year ago and has featured in just two ODIs so far. Rinku scored 1,899 points in 52 Group A matches, averaging 48.69 points. UP will begin its campaign against Jammu and Kashmir on December 21.