Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) 2019 campaign turned out to be a one-man show. West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell took his team to the fifth position on the back of his impressive performances with both bat and ball.
Russell stockpiled 510 runs from 14 matches, coming in at the backend of the innings. Moreover, it was his pyrotechnics with the bat which grabbed all eyeballs; he smashed bowlers at a strike-rate of over 200. With the ball, he ended up with 11 wickets in the tournament.
Now, CEO of KKR, Venky Mysore has heaped praises on the Caribbean T20 giant, claiming that the franchise is fortunate to have his services.
Then, Mysore tagged Russell as the ‘Michael Jordan of T20 cricket’.
Michael Jordan is one of the all-time greats in the history of basketball and the NBA, who could win titles for his club on his own.
“We’ve been fortunate that Andre Russell has been the No. 1 T20 player in the world. You can say he’s a batsman, bowler, all-rounder but he’s just the No. 1 T20 player in the world. He’s the Michael Jordan of T20 cricket. There’s no question about it,” Mysore told Sportskeeda in an interview.
Despite Russell’s herculean efforts, KKR could not qualify into the playoffs last season. With the announcement of the 13th edition of IPL, starting September 19, Mysore hoped the likes of Russell and Sunil Narine would replicate their performances.
“A lot of people don’t realise that Sunil Narine has been an outstanding all-rounder. Everyone knows how good he is as a bowler, but he’s transformed himself into an all-rounder. That’s because of the opportunities he has got at KKR and he has grabbed them with both hands,” the KKR CEO added.
“It’s incredible the role he plays – opening the batting, bowling at various stages whenever the captain wants him to. That makes it two really strong all-rounders. We are also very fortunate to have people like Pat Cummins and Nitish Rana,” Mysore concluded.
