New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan, popularly known as SRK, turned 59 on Saturday and received birthday wishes from every corner of the world, asserting the fact of being a global superstar and mega icon. The Bollywood actor is well known for his ventures in sports – one of which is Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), a franchise that he co-owns in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He shares a close bond with each player who plays for the KKR, specially Rinku Singh.
KKR were crowned as champions of the IPL 2024, and Rinku too had his moment with the King Khan, celebrating the huge triumph. Being a part of the Kolkata-based franchise since 2018, it has been a long journey for Rinku, whose breakout year was IPL 2023 when he slammed five consecutive sixes off Yash Dayal’s over to pull off a thrilling victory over Gujarat Titans (GT). The instance forced SRK to make a special post about Rinku on social media and since then, there’s no looking back on their bond.
SRK is a notable figure who emerges in almost every KKR game throughout the season and goes on to congratulate the players if the team ends up on the winning side and to console and boost their morale if the result goes the other way. Several videos of Rinku celebrating with SRK have gone viral in the past in which the two dance their hearts out.
Taking to his social media handle on Saturday, Rinku didn’t miss the chance to wish the famous Bollywood actor. Posting a couple of pictures with SRK, Rinku wrote, “Aapko inse pyaar hoga, mujhe toh mohabbat hain. Janamdivas ki shubhkamnaye SRK sir. Puri duniya mein pyaar aur khushi hamesha baatne ke liye bohot bohot dhanyawaad. Love you sir. (Birthday greetings SRK sir. Thanks a lot for spreading love and happiness across the world. Love you sir).”
Here’s the post by Rinku –
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KKR retain Rinku for IPL 2025
Ahead of the IPL 2025 mega-auction, KKR have retained six players from their previous year’s squad and Rinku is one of those only players who have made the cut. The franchise made headlines as they released their title-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer but kept hold of the likes of Rinku (13 crores), Varun Chakravarthy (12 crores), Sunil Narine (12 crores), Andre Russell (12 crores), Harshit Rana (4 crores), and Ramandeep Singh (4 crores).
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They spent Rs. 57 crores on their retentions and have a remaining purse value of Rs. 51 crore to go into the mega-auction. Rinku has turned out to be their top retention who was a part of the team for Rs. 55 lakhs for the previous three seasons.