Rinku Singh

A middle-order batter and an excellent outfielder, Rinku Singh stunned everyone when he hit Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes with Kolkata Knight Riders needing 28 from five balls against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023.

Rinku's is a rags-to-riches story. At one point, with the family in debt, he almost took the job as a domestic worker. His fortune changed when KKR bought him for INR 80 lakh at the IPL 2018 auction. However, it was not until IPL 2022 that he played an innings of note. The following season, he was the leading run-scorer for KKR, with a tally of 474 at a strike rate of 149.52.

Rinku has been equally impressive in the other two formats as well. In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, he bailed out Uttar Pradesh on multiple occasions and finished with 953 runs at an average of 105.88. At the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he registered four fifties and a hundred in six innings.

He made his T20I debut in 2023 and found immediate success as a finisher. Later that year, he made his ODI debut, too. With his part-time offspin, Rinku picked up a wicket in his first over in ODIs and two in his first over in T20Is.

In 2019, he was suspended for three months by the BCCI for taking part in the Ramadan T20 Cup in Abu Dhabi without the board's permission.

Rinku Singh IPL factfile

- Rinku Singh is the only batter to hit five sixes in the last over of an IPL chase, or any T20 chase (where ball-by-ball data is available) for that matter, winning Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a game that looked well beyond them against Gujarat Titans (GT) in 2023.

- During that innings, Rinku became the first Indian to hit five consecutive sixes in one over in the IPL - only Chris Gayle had done it before him; two other Indians (Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Tewatia) have five sixes in an IPL over but not off consecutive deliveries.

- Rinku was first bought by Punjab Kings (PBKS, at the time Kings XI Punjab or KXIP) at the 2017 auction but he didn't get a game with them. So his IPL career only really started and flourished at KKR, who gave him a debut in 2018.