There is no doubt that Rinku Singh is being projected as the finisher in the Indian T20I side as it prepares for another shot at clinching an ICC silverware, and aim to end a 10-year drought when they travel to West Indies and the US for the T20 World Cup in June.

The young southpaw has been one of the positives in India’s recent T20I series against South Africa and Afghanistan. In 11 T20I innings, Rinku now has 356 runs at an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.23.

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Seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has joined the list of top players in praising Rinku’s finishing skills, and went on to the extent of terming him as a “left-handed MD Dhoni.”

“He is somebody I’d call a left-handed Dhoni. I can’t compare him to Dhoni just yet because Dhoni is too big. But, I am talking about the composure that he brings,” Ashwin said.

“He has been consistently scoring buckets of runs for UP and broke his way into the Indian team. He was on the KKR bench for many years,” he said.

Ashwin also narrated a story how the Uttar Pradesh lad has won over the KKR management with his gamesmanship.

“People used to tell me that, when he was at KKR, even though he couldn’t get the chance to bat at practice, he collected all the balls that batters hit in throwdowns and gave them back to the bowler,” Ashwin revealed.

“Since then, he has been with the franchise for so long, put in the hard work for UP and showed that he’s always available to get to the Indian team out of a tricky situation or finish an innings.

“The composure doesn’t change whether the team is batting first or chasing. His composure towards the back end of the innings is a bonus,” added Ashwin.

Both skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid have also echoed similar views on the youngster’s approach to his game, with Rohit clearly saying that he fits the bill to the team management’s search of a finisher going forward.

Dravid also heaped praises on Rinku’s level of maturity, and said that he is clear about his skills and understands his strong areas.

“For someone who is just starting out in international cricket, just the maturity he’s shown, the calmness is terrific. When we have these conversations with him, he’s very clear about his skills, what he knows what his strengths are, what he needs to work on and how he’s going to go about constructing his innings,” the former India captain Dravid had said.

But it hasn’t been a cakewalk for the Uttar Pradesh lad, who plies his trade for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and has stepped up the ranks from once a benched cricketer to a serious T20 batter, and a front-runner to taking the finisher’s role when India travels for the marquee tournament in the Caribbean and the US.

Blessed with a calm demeanour, Rinku has relished the complex challenges of batting at No.5 in the shortest format of the game, and taken giant strides towards making himself an integral part of India’s playing XI. In less than a year since making his debut, Rinku has established himself at No 6 for India in T20Is.

While the hallmark of Rinku’s batting has been his explosive batting towards the latter half of the innings, he had recently shown in the final T20I against Afghanistan in Bengaluru that he has the ability to set up an innings before giving the final flourish.

Coming in to bat with India struggling at 22 for 4 inside the powerplay, Rinku showed great maturity to play the perfect supporting act with skipper Rohit Sharma to first rebuild India’s ship, and later added 103 runs in the last five overs, including a record 58 off the final two to propel the side to 212 for 4.

The Indian team has no more T20I assignments in the build-up to the T20 World Cup, and will use the IPL to select the team for the tournament. While Rinku has done his part to cement his place in the World Cup side, the tournament, running from March 22 to May-end could be a perfect auction for the other contenders.