Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has reckoned that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) middle-order batter Rinku Singh has enough captaincy experience to lead the Kolkata-based outfit in the IPL 2027 season.
For the unversed, Rinku captained the Meerut Mavericks to the title win in the just-concluded UPT20 League 2026 season, defeating the Bhuvneshwar Kumar-led UP Falcons in the grand finale. Earlier in the 2025 season, he had led the team to the final.
“Rinku Singh has captaincy experience. He is slightly underrated, but he is the kind of character you need in a captain. He takes everyone along with him. He is unassuming. He is a match-winner, a performer and a contributor. If you look at all these qualities and then look at his performance as captain in UP T20, you will find that his captaincy does not affect his performance,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“He puts the team ahead of himself. That’s another quality he possesses. He is also someone you can put your arm around, talk to, explain things to and have a conversation with. In my humble opinion, I feel KKR should make Rinku Singh their captain,” he added.
Following Ajinkya Rahane’s retirement from all formats of cricket, KKR is eyeing a new skipper ahead of the IPL 2027 season. Notably, Rahane led the three-time champions across the 2025 and 2026 seasons after Shreyas Iyer’s exit.
Rinku, who made his IPL debut in the 2018 season, played only four games in that season. Later in IPL 2019, he played five games while he was part of the XI, in only one game in IPL 2020, and remained on the bench in IPL 2021.
In IPL 2022, he managed to get seven games. However, in IPL 2023, he hogged the headlines after hitting Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes in the final over against Gujarat Titans and later received his maiden India T20I call-up.
