Andre Russell showers praise on RCB, says they have some great matchwinners
Mar 28, 2024
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 28 : Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) allrounder Andre Russell showered praise on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and said that they have "great matchwinners" in their squad.
The Kolkata-based franchise will lock horns against RCB in their upcoming match in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Speaking in the pre-match press conference, Russell said that KKR won't be taking RCB for granted as they can take away any game. The Caribbean allrounder added that the Bengaluru-based franchise have good bowling unit.
"My mindset is very clear, especially coming after a win and getting some runs as well. [But] I am not going to take anything for granted. RCB is an amazing team and they have some great matchwinners, who can take the game away from us. They have a good bowling unit as well. So I hope that if I face five, six, seven, eight balls in the backend, I make the best use of it. But I would love the other batters to come to the party tomorrow and at least get some time in the middle," Russell was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.
RCB batting coach Neil McKenzie talked about the pitch at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
"I think the other day's pitch had a bit of up-and-down movement, but that's definitely not the norm. So I think it should be a good pitch [tomorrow] with some pace in it, which should probably suit our team," McKenzie said.
KKR squad: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (C), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya , Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Allah Ghazanfar, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.
RCB squad: Faf du Plessis (C), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh and Saurav Chauhan.