Sunil Narine not far behind Andre Russell in terms of all-round capabilities: KKR CEO Venky Mysore

Widely regarded as of the greatest T20 players, Andre Russell has been gracing the Kolkata Knight Rider’s side for quite a while now. The explosive hitter is one of the favourites for the franchise and therefore is retained in every auction with a handsome amount of cash.

Recently, KKR’s CEO Venky Mysore opined that Andre Russell could well be Brendon McCullum’s ‘Michael Jordan of T20 cricket’, but for KKR fans, Sunil Narine is not that far behind in terms of his all-round capabilities.

Narine has been with the KKR for as long as 2012 and stunned everyone with his ball during the first few years of his stint. He was in the instrumental role behind KKR’S two victories in the year 2012 and 2014. While in the recent few years, Narine has developed himself as a great all-rounder providing solid starts at the top-order.

Russell’s stats speak volumes about his skills and class, especially in the T20 leagues. In the last year, he scored 1080 runs at a strike rate of 182.12 across all T20s. None of the other batsmen with 500 runs was at par with him in terms of quickness. 510 out of those 1080 came in IPL only at a strike rate of 204.81.

Both Russell and Narine are currently playing in CPL 2020

In an interview on the RK show, Mysore said– “A lot of people keep thinking about Andre Russell as the best all-rounder, which he is. Our coach [McCullum], I borrowed a line from him, when he said that ‘Andre Russell is the Michael Jordan of T20 cricket’, but, at the same time, you look at Sunil Narine’s stats, a lot of people might be pleasantly surprised as to how… he is not that far behind in terms of his all-round capabilities and how he has contributed to KKR and what he does – with the bat; we know what he does with the ball. So those two have been absolutely brilliant.”

Both Russell and Narine are currently in action in CPL playing for Jamaica Tallawahs and Trinbago Knight Riders respectively. Both will be seen in splendid action during the upcoming edition of the IPL commencing the next month in UAE.