IPL 2020: KKR chief mentor David Hussey names his back-up all-rounder for Andre Russell

Kolkata Knight Riders are yet to begin their journey in the IPL 2020, and their first match will take against defending champions Mumbai Indians on September 23.

Kolkata has always talked about having a lot of star overseas players in their lot like Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins and Sunil Narine. Russell has always been considered as one of the most dangerous players in the T20 format, and his explosive batting is much awaited in their season opener against the Rohit Sharma-led side.

However, KKR chief mentor David Hussey threw light on some of the players who can be considered as an alternate to Russell. Hussey was in chat with KKR fans on social media when someone asked him to name a back-up all-rounder.

Hussey mentioned Chris Green as one of the options and also lauded youngster Kamlesh Nagarkoti’s potential ahead of their season opener. “I like Nagarkoti as back up all-rounder. He is talented, athletic, can do amazing things on the field. He is an India U19 champion. An all-round ripping kid. He tries hard, and one of his best attributes is that he competes,” said Hussey while answering a fan’s query.

Though Russell has been one explosive man for KKR in the last few years, he has been struggling with some injuries too. In the last season IPL, he featured in 14 matches for KKR and amassed a total of 510 runs at an amazing average of 56.66. He maintained a thunderous strike-rate of 204.81 while picking 11 wickets to get his team over the line in tight situations.

KKR’s dominance in the league

Talking about the KKR line up, the side will be led by wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik. Kolkata has some great players in their lot like Shubhman Gill, Nitish Rana, and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav.

They will try to dominate the bowling department with the assistance of their star foreign buy Pat Cummins. Cummins has been roped in by the Knight Riders at a whopping amount of Rs 15.5 crore, which made him the most expensive foreign buy in the IPL history. Winning two titles in the IPL journey in the year 2012 and 2014, KKR will move forward to eye their third one this season.