'He must be regretting it, you don't get such opportunities often': Gambhir rues untimely dismissal of Andre Russell
"He had already smashed them for 24 in the first over, so I'm sure on his way back to the dressing room, he must be thinking that he lost a golden opportunity to score his hundred and also to finish off his game on his own, by the 16th, 17th overs," Gambhir added.
Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir weighed in on the dismissal of Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Andre Russell against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. Russell scored a quick-fire half-century off 21 balls, to lift KKR from the doldrums of 31/5 to 112 before he was bowled in a rather uncharacteristic manner.
To a leg-sidish ball from Sam Curran, Russell decided to leave it altogether, but the ball was just on target enough to rattle his leg stump. Gambhir reckons CSK deserve credit for planning Russell's dismissal well.
"For me I think it was a bluff. I thought it was great thinking because the entire field was set as if he was going to bowl wide outside off stump. And Russell probably was preparing for that because Shardul Thakur kept bowling outside off and that too those full-length balls. So he just probably attacked the leg stump and that's where it looked weird. He ended up leaving that because he was not even prepared for it," Gambhir said on ESPNCricinfo.
"The way he was hitting the ball, I'm sure, he knew deep inside that had he played for another four-five overs, he knew that an off-spinner would never come on to bowl till the time Russell was on the crease."
Gambhir, a former KKR captain himself, who led the team to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014, added that Russell, after returning to the dugout, must be regretting his shot selection. Gambhir feels that had the West Indies batsman carried on a little longer, he could have not only won the match for KKR single-handedly but perhaps scored a century to go with it.
"He had already smashed them for 24 in the first over, so I'm sure on his way back to the dressing room, he must be thinking that he lost a golden opportunity to score his hundred and also to finish off his game on his own, by the 16th, 17th overs," Gambhir added.
"You don't get such opportunities often because you don't really play much at the Wankhede. He was smashing it. I'm sure he must be regretting it. Had he just defended that ball, KKR would have probably won that game."
