Rinku Singh has developed into one of the most exciting Indian cricketers going, with his finishing abilities making him one of the biggest game-changers.
However, he’s not a player who has been without his struggles growing up and coming through the system, and he shared a horrific story of when he was attacked by a monkey as a child, leaving him with a gruesome injury.
Appearing on the Raj Shamani podcast, Rinku explained how monkey attacks used to be a consistent problem for him and his brothers growing up. The worst experience left Rinku’s arm gouged out, and even one kilogram lighter than his other arm.
“The most dangerous bite he gave me happened when it was raining. At that time, in the house, there wasn’t really a washroom, so we used to go to the fields,” explained Rinku, who grew up in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
“It was the rainy season, so me, my brother, and my friend were going, carrying an umbrella. As we were going, someone behind us shouted, ‘The monkey has come.’ Then it came from behind and caught me,” said Rinku. “I was completely pinned down, and it kept biting me again and again. It tore out a lot of my flesh, a lot.”
‘Didn’t know whether I would survive or not…’
The terrifying story continues as Rinku explains that the monkey wouldn’t leave him alone, even as his family tried to chase it away. “There weren’t many people around to save me. My brother was throwing stones at it, but it wouldn’t leave me. It bit me very badly.”
“It was during the rain, then I ran from there. My blood was flowing like that, and my bones inside were visible,” said Rinku, painting a truly gruesome image of the incident he suffered through.
“Then we went to a clinic. When they were doing the dressing, my family was just standing there with me, not knowing what would happen, whether I would survive or not, because a lot of blood was coming out,” he continued. “My bones inside were visible. So my family just carried me there.”
Thankfully for Rinku and his family, the situation didn’t get worse as they were able to quickly get him some care to ensure that, despite the horrific injury, he would survive and allow it to improve. “Somehow they called someone, made contact, saying, ‘Come, a monkey has bitten a boy.’ Then they came, did the dressing, and only after that I became fine,” explained the southpaw batter.
A long way on from that horrifying story, Rinku is now part of India’s squad in the Asia Cup, where he will be looking for a chance to make an impact.