West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell is a terrific hitter of the cricket ball. He is someone who can hit sixes with just a flick of his wrists and what sets him apart from most other batsmen in modern-day cricket is that he clears the ropes effortlessly and at times with brute force.
Nonetheless, he is one heck of an absolute entertainer of the game. His devastating force was clearly witnessed while plying his trade for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League. Whenever he comes out to bat, he gets a roaring reception from the spectators, and the Caribbean often puts on a show which is worth applauding.
Gautam Gambhir heaps praise on Andre Russell:
We would have won one or two more trophies had KKR signed Andre Russell earlier: Gautam Gambhir
Meanwhile, former KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir reserved the highest respect for power-hitter Andre Russell. Gambhir believes his IPL team would have won more Indian Premier League titles had Andre Russell played more under him for KKR.
“Imagine Russell going for Rs 50 lakhs to KKR and Pawan Negi for Rs 8 crores to (Delhi) Daredevils. I probably wished that he (Russell) would have been there for seven years when I was playing, we would have certainly won one or two more,” Gautam Gambhir said while speaking on Star Sports ‘Cricket Connected’ show.
It is worth mentioning here that KKR were crowned the IPL champions for the first time in 2012, beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final. They won their second title in 2014 by defeating Kings XI Punjab.
Andre Russell has done so well for KKR in the IPL:
West Indies hard-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell made his IPL debut with Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in 2012 but hardly got chances to play the game. Unfortunately, injuries prevented him from playing more games for the first two editions.
Before the 2014 edition, he was signed by KKR. However, he could feature in only a couple of games during that season. Things took a huge turn for Andre Russell in 2015 as he piled up as many as 326 runs at a staggering strike-rate of 192. Besides batting so well, he also bowled well and picked up 14 wickets.
The 2016 edition saw him play predominantly incredibly with the ball as he had bagged 15 wickets while also scoring as many as 188 runs to his name.
After serving a year-long doping ban, the West Indies all-rounder bagged 13 wickets and more than 300 runs in 2018 season. In the last season, Russell scored 510 runs besides claiming 11 wickets.
In total, Andre Russell has by far played 64 IPL games in which he scored 1,400 runs and picked up 55 wickets.