Everybody acknowledges that Andre Russell is the brute of world cricket. His power hitting has been simply magnificent and his exploits in the IPL 2019 were simply jaw-dropping. Russell is acknowledged as the most impactful and game-changing batsman in the history of the Twenty20 format and his power will be immensely helpful for Kolkata Knight Riders. He has already signaled his intentions with the bat as to how he will decimate Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2020 clash in Abu Dhabi.
In the nets session uploaded by the Kolkata Knight Riders twitter handle, Russell’s brutal hitting in the net session was so intense that he smashed a glass of the camera in the practice session. They tagged it, “Oh gosh! That’s SMASHED - wait for the last shot.. #MuscleRussell warming up to his devastating best!”
Russell’s devastation
In IPL 2019, Andre Russell was an absolute beast with the bat in the death overs. Russell smashed an unbeaten 48 in 13 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad to take KKR to a sensational win from the brinks of a defeat. Russell scored 510 runs in 14 games last year in that edition at an average of 56.66 with a colossal strike rate of 204.81. Overall, he has played 64 IPL games and has a strike rate of 186.41.
It is no surprise that many bowlers do not fancy bowling to Andre Russell in that kind of mood. In IPL 2020, Russell is expected to once again murder the bowling to all parts of the ground after a solid showing with the Jamaica Tallawahs in CPL 2020. One bowler who is not enjoying bowling to Russell is Kolkata Knight Riders chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav.
Speaking to a TV channel, Kuldeep said, “To be very honest I don’t like to bowl to Andre Russell during the nets sessions because you tend to get scared when he goes for the big one, and sometimes he misses out and it comes straight to you. Difficult to adjust yourself but yeah, if you are bowling to him you get a lot of experience to bowl in death overs or big hitting batsmen. It’s a good experience for me and he’s definitely one of the best T20 players and we’re lucky to have him,” Kuldeep said.
