IPL 2019 | Expecting Andre Russell to deliver every time is unfair, says Dinesh Karthik

Russell has been in red hot form, scoring 510 runs from 14 games at a blistering strike rate of 204 to inflict immense damage on the opposition. Russell’s batting position has been one of the talking points as he didn’t get to face enough deliveries in many innings. 

Against MI, Russell took guard at five, but the pressure was already on KKR after few quiet overs in the middle thanks to Robin Uthappa. Another explosive batting is what KKR needed from Russell, but the all-rounder was undone by Lasith Malinga on a duck. His dismissal dented KKR’s hopes of getting a challenging total as the side could only manage to post 133. 

In their home game against MI this season, Russell surprised everyone by batting at three and repaid the faith with interest by smashing a match-winning innings. He did reasonably well against KXIP after that, however, he failed to perform against MI. This suggests that the lower Russell went down the batting order, his performance only declined. 

Regarding Russell’s batting position against MI, Karthik said, “There was an opportunity to bat up the order for Andre Russell, but expecting him to deliver every time is unfair and he has been fantastic throughout the tournament for us," Karthik said, reported Times Now. 

KKR certainly have a lot of areas to pull up and the two times champions did have a terrible run this season. Karthik is optimist and has said that the side will return stronger next edition.

"This was not our best season. There are a lot of areas for us to improve on, and I'm sure we will come back stronger next year," Karthik said.