India’s top-order set for rejig as Rohit, Shubman to miss first Test
With three days remaining for the opening Test at the Optus Stadium in Perth, the Indian think tank led by head coach Gautam Gambhir has been challenged on several fronts.
Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Gautam Gambhir has said that he could’ve led the team to more IPL glories if the swashbuckling West Indes all-rounder Andre Russell had played more under him.
“Imagine Russell going for Rs 50 lakhs to KKR and Pawan Negi for Rs 8 crores to (Delhi) Daredevils. I probably wished that he (Russell) would have been there for seven years when I was playing, we would have certainly won one or two more,” Gambhir said while speaking on Star Sports ‘Cricket Connected’ show as quoted by IANS.
Gambhir had led KKR to victory in 2012 and 2014, while Russell had joined the Kolkata team in 2014. But his chances were limited in the title-winning campaign as he featured only in a couple of games.
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However, the Jamaican turned the tide since 2015 as the cricketing world was graced by his hard-hitting cricket. With 326 runs at a strike-rate of 192, Russell became KKR’s mainstay in the middle-order.
The 2016 season saw the 31-year-old playing it more with the ball with 15 wickets and scored 188 runs. Russell’s efforts proved enough to take KKR to the playoffs but not further. He did not feature in the 2017 edition of IPL due to a year-long ban.
After serving the ban, the all-rounder ended up with 13 wickets and more than 300 runs in the 2018 season. In the last season, Russell scored a massive tally of 510 runs besides picking up 11 wickets.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Thursday confirmed that the IPL 2020, which was due to be played from March 29 this year before getting postponed to April 15, had been suspended indefinitely.
In an official statement, Shah said that the decision was taken keeping in mind the “evolving global health concerns regarding COVID-19” and the nationwide lockdown that has been imposed in India till May 3 to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
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