Rinku showcases his value as India's finisher

"I don't have a lot of shots."

That was Abhishek Sharma after he hit 84 off 35 balls against New Zealand in the first T20I in Nagpur. He was not being modest. He hardly plays scoops, ramps or reverse hits, all staples of a modern-day T20 batter. Still, he strikes at 190.92 in T20Is.

The same applies to Rinku Singh, whose unbeaten 44 off 20 balls gave the finishing touch to India's innings on Wednesday. According to ESPNcricinfo's logs, scoops, ramps and reverse sweeps combined have brought him just 1% of his T20I career runs. But just like Abhishek, he has one of the best strike rates in the format: 165.

And when it comes to the last two overs of a T20I innings, it zooms to 287.83. Among players from Full Member countries who have faced at least 20 balls in this mini-phase, no one scores faster than Rinku. Restrict it to just the 20th over, and it becomes a mind-boggling 302.63. With the same filter - Full Member and 20 balls - only Suryakumar Yadav (321.42) is ahead of Rinku. But when Suryakumar is batting in the 20th over, he is already set. Rinku rarely has that luxury.

While both Abhishek and Rinku were key to India's eventual 48-run win in Nagpur, Rinku's innings was arguably of greater significance, for him as well as the team. Since his T20I debut in July 2024, Abhishek has produced such knocks with such frequency that his latest felt like routine work. Rinku, on the other hand, was making a comeback to the side. With the T20 World Cup just 17 days away, his ticked a big box.

Since dew was expected in the second innings, India needed an above-par total. Abhishek's innings powered them to 149 in 12 overs. But their ultra-aggressive approach meant they kept losing wickets too. When Rinku walked in, they were five down in 13.4 overs.

Rinku has said in the past that he tries to stay as calm as possible in the middle, a piece of advice he got from MS Dhoni. But on Wednesday, he was feeling the heat.

"When you have been out of the team and are making a comeback, there is some pressure," he said after the game. "My thought process was that I should focus on single-double for a bit, and look for a boundary here and there. The plan was to bat till the end."

Rinku could not have executed this any better. He moved to a run-a-ball 7 before hitting his first boundary - not via a scoop, or any of those fancy shots, but an off-drive. With three overs left and Axar Patel still at the other end, he opened up against debutant Kristian Clarke, pulling a rank short ball over short fine leg for a six before steering a wide one through covers for four. Neither was a high-risk shot and yet he raced to 22 off 12.

However, Axar fell two balls later, leaving Rinku and the tail with 13 deliveries. The very phase where he thrives in had to be navigated with caution.

Rinku took a single off the first legitimate ball of the 19th over, hoping his new partner, Arshdeep Singh, would be able to give the strike back to him. Arshdeep failed to connect with the next three deliveries. It started looking like Rinku had made a mistake. But Arshdeep got a boundary off the fifth ball and the two were content not to run off the last to ensure Rinku was on strike for the 20th over.

That left New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner with a tricky decision to make. He and Ish Sodhi had an over left each. But they both turn the ball towards Rinku's leg side. With the square boundary just 66 metres long, Santner did not take that risk, even though Rinku has struck at only 113.79 against that bowling type in T20Is.

The other slow bowler, offspinner Glenn Phillips, had leaked 20 from his only over of the night. So Santner decided to go with seam. Since all his frontline seamers had completed their quotas, he went with Daryl Mitchell, a part-time medium-pacer who had not bowled a single over until then. Rinku's strike rate against seam in T20Is is 180.30. He duly smashed Mitchell for two sixes and two fours in a 21-run over to give India a dew-proof total.

It is this very quality - taking down seam bowling and finishing the innings - that has probably helped him make a comeback to the side. When the team management decided to replace Sanju Samson with Shubman Gill during the T20Is against South Africa in December, someone in the middle order had to make way for the new wicketkeeper, Jitesh Sharma. With Shivam Dube offering a sixth bowling option, Rinku became collateral damage. But when Gill failed to replicate his IPL 2025 performance - 650 runs at a strike rate of 155.87 - the selectors reverted to their original blueprint.

Wednesday's game, at least, showed that they made the right call. Or as Rinku often says, and the tattoo on his left forearm reads, it was perhaps all "God's plan".