Shah Rukh Khan sir took me on a chartered flight after I wasn’t selected in the main Indian squad: Rinku Singh

Team India and Kolkata Knight Riders dashing batter Rinku Singh has disclosed an anecdote involving his team owner and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan after the finisher wasn’t included in the main squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 campaign and was included in the reserve players list.

While the whole squad had already left for the World Cup, Rinku was completing the visa formalities. That was the point in time when he was asked to travel with Shah Rukh. Though he wasn’t willing to travel with the Baadshah of Bollywood, he couldn’t refuse it when SRK himself asked him to travel with him.

“So this was the time when I wasn’t selected in the main squad — I was in the standby list. The team had already left, and I had to go for visa formalities. Sir (referring to Shah Rukh Khan) also had to leave the next day. My flight had already been booked, and I was about to leave — alone. Somehow, either Sir or Pooja ma’am found out, and they said I should travel with Sir, I was completely nervous — like, “I’m going to travel alone with Sir? How will I handle myself? What will I say? tried so many times to refuse,” Rinku told RevSportz.

Furthermore, Rinku revealed that the two-hour journey with SRK has motivated him a lot, as the IPL 2024 season didn’t go well for the finisher. Notably, in the IPL 2024 season, Rinku could score only 168 runs from 11 innings at an average of 18.66 and a strike rate of 148.67.

“But once Sir had said it, how could I say no? Yes, there was a conversation in the car. He was giving me a lot of encouragement. That season also wasn’t going too well for me. So he was explaining things to me, giving me support. So he was motivating me a lot. And for the first time, I sat in a charter flight — and that too, with Sir. Those two hours were really, really amazing for me. What can I even say? It was just incredible. So many beautiful things happened,” he added.

Rinku Singh will next feature in the Asia Cup 2025 campaign as India will initiate their campaign against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday, September 10.

India’s squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel.

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