Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders have kickstarted their IPL 2024 campaign with a closely fought win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens on Saturday night. Andre Russell put up an all-round show, setting the base for KKR’s winning start with a quickfire half-century followed by two wickets.
It was an important knock from Russell’s perspective considering the middling season he had last year for KKR and despite that, the team management kept its faith on the star allrounder by retaining him ahead of IPL players auction last December.
During a discussion on Star Sports, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar rejected the suggestion that Russell’s sparkling display had anything to do with Gautam Gambhir linking up with KKR as their mentor for the season.
Gambhir, under whose captaincy KKR won both their IPL titles, left Lucknow Super Giants prior to the season to return to his old franchise in a different role.
Gavaskar said if Russell puts up a below-par performance, will that also be credited to Gambhir.
“Let’s not go ahead of ourselves. He (Russell) batted well, and it’s got nothing to do with anyone coming into there (KKR). If he doesn’t do well in the next few innings, will you blame Gautam Gambhir? Let’s take it a little bit easy,” Gavaskar said.
Russell was in the zone as he clattered three fours and seven sixes during his brutal assault on SRH bowlers. He remained unbeaten on 64 off 25 to power KKR to 208/7.
Analysing Russell’s batting, Gavaskar said, “When you saw someone like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was practising his yorkers so well on the practise pitches, bowled leg-deliveries (in the match) which was everything in the arc for Andre Russell… When somebody like Russell is hitting the ball into the stands, nobody can stop him.”
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For his all-round show, Russell was picked as the player-of-the-match.
KKR will now fly to Bengaluru for their second match of the season as they next face Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
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