Former India off-spinner and IPL winner Pragyan Ojha has slammed KKR all-rounder Andre Russell for his poor form with the bat and called him a liability for the team. Russell has been a shadow of himself this season with just 83 runs from 8 games at 11.85. The West Indies superstar was KKR’s highest-scorer last season and 5th on the overall tally with 510 runs from 14 games at an average of 56.66 with 4 half-centuries but hasn’t been able to replicate his form this year.
“Andre Russell is not an improved cricketer, he has not changed his game. You see all the top players, they have changed their approach. Andre Russell is playing just the way he was playing 4 years ago, that is a liability.
“Look at Jasprit Bumrah, when he came into the Mumbai Indians side and what he is today, you have to improve. You have to improve as a cricketers, cricket is evolving and you have to evolve, you cannot be stagnant,” Ojha said.
Ojha was also highly critical of Kolkata Knight Riders and their decision to change the captain mid-way into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season after their 8-wicket loss against Mumbai Indians on Friday.
Dinesh Karthik gave up captaincy to Eoin Morgan on Friday, just hours before their match against MI, which they lost after failing to defend a below-par 149 in Abu Dhabi.
“Dinesh Karthik is the captain. He calls all the decisions, he talks to the coaches, management, he picks the Indian players, he is in the thick and thin of the team’s decisions. Suddenly in the middle of the tournament, he says that he doesn’t want to take the captaincy because of my batting. I don’t understand that, somehow I feel it is not right.
“When you have taken the responsibility, you have a set of ideas that you want to finish this season, then you finish the season and give the captaincy to someone else. That’s what I feel. I know Morgan was there in the leadership group but he was not the captain till everybody started this tournament. But I doubt he was part of the selection, part of the decision-making process,” Ojha said on Sports Today.
KKR are currently played fourth on the IPL 2020 table with 8 points from as many games which includes 4 wins and 4 losses. They will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on October 18.
