KKR Would Have Won More Titles Had Andre Russell Played Longer Under Me: Gautam Gambhir

There is little doubt that West Indian cricketer Andre Russell is one of the best all-rounders going around in the shortest format of the game. With the bat, Russell has been murdering bowling attacks for fun in the past few years and has been the spearhead of the Kolkata Knight Riders unit.

And, former Kolkata Knight Riders captain, under whom the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise won two Indian Premier League titles in 2012 and 2014, Gautam Gambhir has said that his former franchise would have one or more titles, has Russell played under him for a longer period.

“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,” Gambhir was quoted as saying by Times of India during Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.

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Andre Russell has emerged as a key part of KKR in the past few seasons

Andre Russell started his IPL journey with the Delhi Daredevils back in 2012 but it was during his stint with Kolkata Knight Riders that he made heads turn. He was racked up by the Knight Riders in the 2014 edition of the IPL where he could feature in only 2 games in what was a triumphant season for the Knights.

The tide changed in 2015 where he racked up 326 runs at an outrageous strike-rate of 192 along with 14 wickets. In the 2016 edition, Russel underwhelmed with the bat but compensated for it with his bowling by claiming 15 wickets.

The swashbuckling West Indian allrounder was banned for one year by the ICC for the failure to pass a drug-related test. He came back brilliantly in the next season. In 16 games, Russell scored 316 runs at a strike-rate of 184.79 besides claiming 13 wickets at an average of 27.30.

But it was in the 2019 season where the world saw Russell at the height of his powers. In 14 games, the all-rounders hammered 510 runs at an average of 56.66 and a barely believable average of 204.81 besides claiming 11 wickets at 26.09.

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