'Deserves a lot more': AB de Villiers' hails KKR batter amid stellar IPL 2023 season

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Kolkata Knight Riders batter Rinku Singh 'deserves a lot more' for his performances this season, reckons former RCB player and legend AB de Villiers.

Rinku Singh has been having a monumental season for KKR in this IPL. Despite the Knight Riders' struggle, the sole performer who has stood tall on almost all occasions is the southpaw from Aligarh.

The ever-smiling batter has been the highest run scorer for them, scoring 407 runs thus far this season in 13 matches. Rinku has batted at an average of 50.9, and an impressive strike rate of 143.3. He also has 3 half-centuries to his name.

But another thing which has stood out is the impact the youngster has made for KKR. Rinku has been the sole saviour for them in numerous instances this year. He hit five consecutive sixes in the last over to secure a stunning victory over Gujarat Titans earlier this season, played a big part in the win over Punjab Kings in Kolkata, and his latest heroics came in the win over CSK on Sunday (May 14).

In a disappointing and inconsistent KKR lineup, Rinku has been the only consistent player and has kept on scoring runs amid collective failures.

And former South Africa and RCB star AB de Villiers believes the player is not getting enough MVP points in the IPL. MVP is the abbreviation of Most Valuable Player, and an award is given to a player each match who makes the biggest impact in the game.

Runs, Sixes, Wickets, Catches are quantified and a point is added on the respective actions and the highest accumulator wins the prize. Although Rinku has played some stellar knocks, he is way behind in the MVP race.

The KKR batter has accumulated 167.5 MVP points so far, which ranks him 26th in the list. Rajasthan Royals batter Yashasvi Jaiswal leads the list with 300.5 pts, followed by Gujarat Titans all-rounder Rashid Khan (258.0) and RCB captain Faf du Plessis (246.5).

A Twitter user published a post on the platform showcasing Rinku Singh's performances this season. Most of the occasions he has scored runs when KKR were struggling, losing too many wickets for too few runs.

And De Villiers reckons Rinku's performance should have brought him more MVP points.

"Deserves a lot more MVP points for this than he's getting!" De Villiers replied to the tweet.

Rinku has been with KKR since 2018, but he has come to the limelight this season. After a couple of decent domestic seasons, the swashbuckling batter is finally getting regular chances in IPL and he has looked at ease in his first full-fledged season.