RCB vs KKR: Andre Russell Is An 'Injury' Waiting To Happen - Simon Doull

Former New Zealand player Simon Doull alerted Kolkata Knight Riders that their star all-rounder Andre Russell is vulnerable to injury this season. Russell smashed 25 runs off 18 balls in Wednesday’s clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The West Indies all-rounder smashed three sixes and a boundary in a bid to push KKR’s score to the three-figure mark after they lost early wickets. However, Russell couldn’t put up a big show as he edged behind off Harshal Patel’s bowling in the 14th over.

RCB needed 24 runs off the last three overs and skipper Shreyas Iyer brought Southee to bowl the 18th over. Southee did snare a couple of wickets in his final over but KKR didn’t have proper bowling options and Andre Russell displayed signs of shoulder issues.

Everybody is worried as soon as Andre Russell dives: Simon Doull

All-rounder Venkatesh Iyer bowled the penultimate over where Harshal Patel smashed him for a couple of fours to bring the equation down to seven runs from six balls.  Wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik hit a six and a four off the first two balls bowled by Andre Russell to take his side to the finish line.

Doull said KKR must either ask Russel to bowl a full quota of four overs or give the responsibility to Nitish Rana and Venkatesh to bowl the remaining four overs.

“You’d like to think that you get four overs out of Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and even a couple of round arms from Nitish Rana if you had to. Most teams are very similar. Very few teams in this competition have five out-and-out bowlers – one of two who can bat.

“It is very difficult to find in T20 cricket. So they’ve got four genuine bowlers, and even Pat Cummins will come back, they still out four very good bowlers,” Doull told Cricbuzz.

“Chakravarthy will have more good nights than bad. But if you can’t rely on four overs from Russell, Iyer and Rana, there’s something wrong. I know everybody is worried as soon as Andre Russell dives but you can’t play the game like that.

“If they’re worried about it, don’t play him, or don’t bowl at all. Just tell Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana that you two are going to be our fifth bowlers,” he added. 

Andre Russell is an injury waiting to happen: Simon Doull

The former New Zealand player wants KKR to manage the workload of Russell else the West Indies all-rounder can face another injury that would rule him out of this season.

“You just hope Russell wins you three games with the bat. In this competition, you are asking every player to win 1-2-3 games. So that might be the way forward. He’s just struggling with the ball. And his body has such an enormous muscle,” Doull said.

“He might be truly over 105-108 kilos; just that enormous mass going through that stress from time to time is not easy. He is an injury waiting to happen, which is a shame because I love watching all of his trades,” he added. 

Rusell missed the final matches of IPL 2021 including the final against CSK because of his hamstring injury. The West Indies all-rounder was retained by the franchise ahead of IPL 2022 along with Sunil Narine, Venkatesh and Varun Chakravarthy.

Also Read: RCB vs KKR: “He’s One Step Ahead Of The Batters At All Times” Chris Lynn Praises Harshal Patel For Outplaying Andre Russell