Rinku Singh, the sensational batter for the Kolkata Knight Riders, has a remarkable story filled with adversity, rejection, dejection, heartbreak, and ultimately success.

In between, his story includes injury scares and a three-month suspension by the BCCI in 2019 for participating in an Abu Dhabi T20 tournament.

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Rinku overcame all of those setbacks, scored a slew of runs for Uttar Pradesh at the domestic level, and gradually and steadily rose to prominence.

The left-hander admitted that the last five years of his career have been difficult, but he has not lost faith despite his injuries. When his father found out about his injury, the batter from Aligarh said he didn’t eat for 2-3 days.

“I wasn’t happy staying away from cricket for so long. My father didn’t eat for 2-3 days. I told him it’s just an injury and it’s part of cricket. I’m the sole breadwinner of my life and when such things happen, it is bound to be worrisome,” Singh said on a video uploaded on KKR’s official Facebook page.

“Those 5 years were really tough for me. After the first year, when I was picked for KKR and I got a chance to play, I couldn’t perform well. Still, KKR trusted me a lot and they retained me for the next couple of seasons,” he added.

Rinku, who was born on October 12, 1997 in Aligarh, was selected by Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2017 but did not play. In the 2018 auction, he was selected by the Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 80 lakh. He stayed with KKR until 2021, when he was forced to retire due to a knee injury and was replaced by Gurkeerat Singh Mann.

Though he did not get a chance to play, his excellent work ethic, friendly demeanour, and desire to help the team in any way endeared him to the franchise, and KKR purchased him again in February this year for IPL 2022.

“I trained hard the way my body language is. The team never thought I was down. Last year was quite tough for me as I got a knee injury during the Vijay Hazare Trophy while running a double. The moment I fell, I thought of the IPL. They told me I needed an operation and would require 6-7 months to recover.

“I was a bit sad, but I knew I would recover quickly as I had a lot of self-belief,” the southpaw added.

(Inputs from IANS)