IPL 2022: Simon Doull suggests KKR play Andre Russell as a pure batsman keeping his fitness in mind

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Mumbai, March 31: Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull raised his concern over the fitness of Kolkata Knight Riders' star all-rounder Andre Russell after the team's game against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 at Dr DY Patli Sports Academy, Mumbai.

Andre Russell had a forgettable outing against the RCB as the big-hitting West Indies all-rounder was dismissed after getting to a fine start with the bat and later with the ball he was just ineffective.

In the final over when he came out to defend six runs, Russell once again raise the team management's worries when he lay down on the ground writhing in pain.

Doull while speaking on Cricbuzz suggested that KKR should think of a different approach to handle him and one such move would be to allow him to play as a pure batsman.

KKR include Russell in the playing eleven with the hopes of getting a few overs from him as a fifth bowler. But the move isn't paying off in the last couple of years due to Russell's back injury.

Doull said on Cricbuzz, "You'd like to think that you get four overs out of Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, and even a couple of round arms from Nitish Rana if you had to.

"Most teams are very similar. Very few teams in this competition have five out-and-out bowlers -- one or two of which can bat. It is very difficult to find in T20 cricket. So they've got four genuine bowlers, and even Pat Cummins will come back, they still got four very genuinely good bowlers."

The former Kiwi pacer further added, "Chakravarthy will have more good nights than bad. But if you can't rely on 4 overs from Russell, Iyer, and Rana, there's something wrong."

"I know everybody is worried as soon as Andre Russell dives but you can't play the game like that. If they're worried about it, don't play him. Or don't bowl him at all. Just tell Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana that you two are going to be our fifth bowlers," Doull said.

"You just don't bowl Russell at all and hope he wins you three games with the bat. In this sort of competition, you are asking every player to win 2-3 games, or even one game. So that might be the way forward. He's just struggling with the ball," he said.

"And his body is such an enormous mass of muscle. He might be truly over 105-108 kilos; just that enormous mass going through that stressful time and time again is not easy. He is an injury waiting to happen, which is a shame because I love watching him ply all of his trades," Doull concluded.