West Indies duo of Andre Russell & Sunil Narine were retained by Kolkata Knight Riders at the IPL retention event held in Mumbai on Thursday (04 January, 2018). The hard-hitting Russell & explosive Narine have put up stellar performances in their career with the franchise & their presence in the KKR line-up will be a major boost for the team as the preparations begin for VIVO IPL 2018.
Having missed the last season of the tournament, all-rounder Russell will be eager to entertain the #KnightRiders like how he’s done in 2015 and 2016. Dangerous with the bat as he can easily shift gears to put the opposition under pressure, he is more than handy with the ball as he bowls with venom & can trouble the batsman.
Russell has scored 516 runs & taken 30 wickets in 27 matches for KKR. He has an astonishing strike-rate of 173.41 in his IPL career. Going back in time, Russell played to his abilities in IPL 2016 & treated the viewers with huge maximums & all-round shows. Here are his best moments from the season:
1. Important knock vs RCB – 39 off 24
Chasing a huge target of 186 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy, KKR were struggling at 69/4 in 10.1 overs. Russell played a crucial innings of 39 off 24 balls that included 4 big sixes along with the solitary boundary as it helped KKR to a 5-wicket win and was named the ‘Man of the Match’. He also had figures of 1/24 from 4 overs against a strong RCB batting line-up. Watch his heroic knock here
2. All-round show vs KXIP – 16 off 10 & 4/20 (4 overs)
Andre Russell put up a splendid show against Kings XI Punjab, both with the bat & ball. Russell faced 10 deliveries and scored 16 runs to help KKR finish at 164/3. He made the ball do the talking as he claimed his best bowling figures in IPL (4/20) as well as defended 12 runs in the last over that saw KKR win the game by 7 runs. An important show & he was given the ‘Man of the Match’ for it. Re-live his performance here
3. His love for the T20 format
Andre Russell enjoys his cricket & loves playing the shorter format of the game. From playing the big shots & aiming to bowl the Yorkers to perfection, he enjoys it all. Get to know from him in this video
