In the new teaser of Cricket Connected, former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir has claimed that if Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got Andre Russell on board earlier, they could have easily won a couple more IPL trophies by now. KKR are behind Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings as the third best IPL franchise as they were crowned as champions twice.
Under Gambhir, KKR won the IPL trophy in 2012 and 2014 beating CSK and Kings XI Punjab in the two finals respectively, but they haven’t managed to win a single trophy ever since. Gautam later went to play for the Delhi Capitals (formerly Daredevils) but Russell stayed on and has emerged as KKR’s most valuable player in the previous two seasons of the IPL.
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In 2018, Russell went in to score 326 runs from 16 matches as KKR reached the Playoffs. He had almost won the IPL Super Striker award in 2018 for having the highest strike rate in the tournament, but his teammate Sunil Narine got it better. He eventually won it next year in the 2019 IPL, where he had a record IPL season strike rate of over 204.81 and was also announced as the Player of the Tournament for his tally of 510 runs.
Gambhir said he would have loved to have Russell in the KKR line-up way before 2014. In the teaser of the new episode of Cricket Connected on Star Sports, Gambhir said, “Imagine Russell going for 50 lakh to KKR and Pawan Negi for 8 crore to Daredevils. I probably wished that he would have been there for 7 years when I was playing we would have certainly won one or two more.”
Recently, responding to former Pakistan all-rounder, Shahid Afridi’s comment of ‘he has no great records’ remark in his book, former Gambhir on Saturday reminded the former allrounder of his 75 off 54 balls in the 2007 World T20 final apart from calling him a ‘liar’ and a ‘traitor’.
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Tweeting about the same, Gambhir wrote: “Someone who doesn’t remember his age how will he remember my records! ok. Shahid Afridi let me remind you one: 2007 T20 WC final, Ind vs Pak Gambhir 75 off 54 balls vs Afridi 0 off 1 ball. Most important: We won the Cup. And yes, I’ve attitude towards liars, traitors & opportunists.”
Someone who doesn’t remember his age how will he remember my records!OK @SAfridiOfficial let me remind u one: 2007 T20 WC final, Ind Vs Pak Gambhir 75 off 54 balls Vs Afridi 0 off 1 ball. Most imp: We won the Cup. And yes, I’ve attitude towards liars, traitors & opportunists.
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 18, 2020
In his book, Afridi had written, “(Gautam Gambhir) and his attitude problem. He, who has no personality. He, who is barely a character in the great scheme of cricket. He has no great records, just a lot of attitude. He behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman and James Bond.”
