Russell is the face of KKR’s selection dilemma

Kolkata: Gratitude can be a potent motivation till it starts running on fumes. Not too long ago, Andre Russell was a one-man army, breaking partnerships, dousing hopes, conjuring mini miracles. Now, Kolkata Knight Riders don’t know what has hit him. An embarrassing average of 9.17 with a strike rate that shouldn’t matter—-both obviously the lowest ever in his IPL career—and chases frittered away so frequently that it begs asking if KKR should look beyond Russell.

It’s a question KKR tend to tiptoe around. Like DJ Bravo, KKR mentor, who passionately defended Russell’s laboured batting after Monday’s 39-run loss to Gujarat Titans. “We as a team didn’t bat properly. That’s just the reality. Russell isn’t the only one struggling right now,” said Bravo. “We need to keep the players mentally focused but IPL is that kind of tournament that when you don’t start well, batsmen go into a period where they’ve lost confidence. That’s what’s happening at the moment.”

Fair enough, but the onus on Russell is probably slightly more than the others if he is a veteran, an overseas player holding up the slot for compatriot Rovman Powell (who till last month was West Indies T20 captain and has an IPL strike rate of 147.54) and not bowling four overs like Narine. More telling is the manner of Russell’s dismissals this year—bowled thrice (and stumped once in six innings—pointing to an explicit problem with reading deliveries and connecting. Twice in this season alone he has failed to pick up the googly but Bravo still tried to reason.

“When Russell walks in to bat every time, the (required) run rate is at 14-15. The work needs to be done at the top so that he has a chance to finish the game like he’s accustomed to at KKR. He’s been out to leg spinners a few times but that’s not a concern. We just need to bat better so he can finish games.”

This reasoning, too, doesn’t pass muster because turning around impossible matches is exactly what Russell has made his name from. Anything else and KKR should ideally be looking at a technically better batter like Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who was pushed down to No 9 on Monday so that Russell could bat longer. And that’s where KKR’s strategies are becoming self-defeating this season, expecting miracles by overlooking the obvious. Ageing slows down reflexes, and no one is above it, certainly not Russell.

There are understandably other emotions at work here. Russell was picked by KKR in 2014 when no one was ready to give him an IPL contract. And so, he thanked them the only way the big man knows. The bond grew, KKR started becoming infatuated with him, and for all the right reasons, till the logic behind all of it started to get blurry. Retaining Russell was never up for debate. Till now. And not just Russell, opening the batting with Sunil Narine too seems to have lost its novelty.

The odd six might trigger a snigger or two from those still backing Narine but it shouldn’t be beyond them that bowlers now know the only way Narine scores is by clearing his front leg and throwing the kitchen sink at the ball. His form still doesn’t feel terminally bad, especially with that strike rate of 177. But when you temper it with the fact that he has hit only 14 sixes (compared to 50 last year, or 40 in 2018), Narine still opening the batting makes no sense anymore. Club this with Russell’s dipping returns and KKR are looking at massive issues both at the top and the back end of their batting.

At one level it isn’t so much with the batting and the returns, because those can be argued either way, as much as it’s about the impression it can create. In Russell and Narine, KKR had managed to create two ruthless hitters of the cricket ball, kicking up mayhem, dousing hopes of opponents. That aura has diminished significantly. Now Narine and Russell are getting beaten regularly, getting dismissed early, wasting deliveries even. Always the first names on retention rosters and playing elevens, Narine and Russell have more than delivered for KKR. To expect them to continue in the same vein however isn’t taking defending champions anywhere close to where they want to be right now.