Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore has showered rich praise on his swashbuckling and superlative all-rounder Andre Russell, comparing the West Indian star to the possibly the greatest basketball player of all time Michael Jordan.
Hailing Russell’s incredible all-round skills, Mysore has described the West Indian all-rounder as an extremely talented player, saying he is undoubtedly the No. 1 all-rounder in the world of T20 cricket.
In the last IPL season in 2019, the all-rounder claimed 11 wickets as well as scored 510 runs in 14 matches at an average of 56.66 and a strike-rate of a stunning 204.81 and the KKR CEO said the franchise is fortunate to have Russell in his team for which the hard-hitter scored 1,342 runs and picked up 54 wickets so far in the IPL.
Mysore told SportsKeeda: “We’ve been fortunate that Andre Russell has been the No. 1 T20 player in the world. You can say he’s a batsman, bowler, all-rounder but he’s just the No. 1 T20 player in the world. He’s the Michael Jordan of T20 cricket. There’s no question about it.”
The KKR, which already has world-class overseas players, have bolstered their squad by purchasing England captain Eoin Morgan and Australia pacer Pat Cummins for the IPL 2020 and Mysore was happy with overall team composition, including the acquiring the services of Nitish Rana.
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He added on the same, “A lot of people don’t realize that Sunil Narine has been an outstanding all-rounder. Everyone knows how good he is as a bowler, but he’s transformed himself into an all-rounder. That’s because of the opportunities he has got at KKR and he has grabbed them with both hands.”
Mysore signed off by saying, “It’s incredible the role he plays - opening the batting, bowling at various stages whenever the captain wants him to. That makes it two really strong all-rounders. We are also very fortunate to have people like Pat Cummins and Nitish Rana.”
(With SportsKeeda Inputs)
