Indian batter Rinku Singh has revealed the advice from head coach Gautam Gambhir is loud and clear, ‘keep hitting’. Gambhir is known for his ultra-aggressive approach and he is backing the Indian players to play a fearless brand of cricket.

Singh scored a vital knock of 53 runs off just 29 balls in the second T20I against Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Wednesday. The left-hander added 108 runs off just 51 balls with Nitish Kumar Reddy after India found themselves in a mire at 41-3 after 5.3 overs.

This was Singh’s third T20I fifty and he got to the milestone off just 26 balls. Singh has impressed in his young career as he has scored 471 runs in 25 T20I matches at an average of 58.88 and a strike rate of 175.09.

“Coach and captain has asked us to play our game, whatever the situation is. Maarte jao har ball ko (Just keep hitting every ball),” Rinku told reporters.

“I have been told to back myself and hit the ball. Gautam bhai has given us the freedom.”

Meanwhile, Singh didn’t get much to bat for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024 as the Shreyas Iyer-led team won the title in the previous season.

“There was no anxiety. The way team was playing, our matches were getting over early. Important was to win,” he said.

The 26-year-old said he tries to bat according to the match situation to benefit the team in the best possible manner.

“My batting order is such that there is no fix time when I will come to bat. When wicket falls early then my plan is to keep the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos and wait for the poor balls to cash in. If when only two and three overs are needed, I try to score as many runs as possible and hit fours and sixes,” he said.

The third T20I of the series will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday.