Andre Russell believes that Sunil Narine is a key figure for the West Indies, even though he opted to retire from international cricket. Missing puzzle in this case means that Narine would be crucial for the West Indies.
Sunil Narine however announced his retirement at 35 in 2023 and played his last T20I match for the Windies in 2019 but has been on fire in IPL by demonstrating tremendous skills in batting and bowling.
If these players came back to play again, Russell thinks that it will bring joy to our nation as a whole.
Honestly, I am so happy for Sunil. Being actually a top bowler who wants to bowl four overs and having 16 wickets taking ability this season as well as getting close to 500 runs, means he’s truly an all-rounder,” Russell said on Star Sports Cricket Live.
The left-handed batsman amassed almost 500 runs including scoring 482 runs which helped Kolkata Knight Riders get explosive starts during power plays while also taking critical wickets at an economy rate of just over 6.90 en route to the final.
Having won their first qualifier against Hyderabad, they are now set to face the winner of Qualifier 2 between SRH and Rajasthan Royals on Friday night.
Sunil Narine later made it clear that “I’ve made peace with that decision” with regards coming out of international retirement ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup in America and Caribbean.
However, Russell had one more request before signing off.
“Yeah I think so, I was trying to get into his head like two weeks leading up before squad announced. And (Sherfane) Rutherford and I tried talking to him saying maybe just for this World Cup then you can retire do whatever you want,” said Russell speaking ahead of the T20 World Cup today after revealing he had already spoken with Chris Gayle who claimed he was retiring after only playing his final game with West Indies.
“But I think he made his decision and respect his decision as well because that’s a big man and a player who does well. The whole West Indies would be happy if he could change that decision, miss,” the Jamaican blaster said.
They went on to lose to Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets after being bowled out for 137/9 at Chepauk in their last game.
Russell also hoped he would use more cutters than yorkers this time looking at the conditions.
“Chennai is a big ground, it’s kind of a weird condition like you don’t know what to expect in there. Last time we played there against Chennai, the pitch looked good. The way the wicket played I didn’t expect Tatenda Taibu-like glovework from Dhoni when we were batting.
“It was slower but CSK bowl very well on that one. Because they are using the wicket, so it’s good going into finals having that experience.”
We have the understanding of how to bowl, use cutters and avoid yorkers. You can bowl at the stumps even in the death overs on this wicket and ground. We have got to be smart about it; we take one game at a time.
“I think when the time comes, we’ve been adjusting well as a bowling unit. For example, when the pitch is slightly sluggish, we can employ power cutters but without being too predictable. I’m here to help out these young guys as well. These guys are keen to learn and that’s great,” Russell said.
Russell has become more disciplined than before by spending more time in gym due to his protracted knee injury problems.
Nowadays, I am trying hard to be more disciplined which means doing something uncomfortable like going to the gym for instance every other day so that my legs get stronger because they’ve been giving me problems for like two years now and sometimes you always take things for granted.
When fans all around world watch games and see you not performing or getting injured millions of them, I don’t think it’s right and I realize that me and the gym are like best friends so its why am fitter this season.”
