Sunil Narine and Andre Rusell
Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore believes that Sunil Narine is not far behind Andre Russell as far as all-round abilities are concerned.
"A lot of people keep thinking about Andre Russell as the best allrounder, which he is. Our coach [McCullum], I borrowed a line from him, when he said that 'Andre Russell is the Michael Jordan of T20 cricket'," Mysore said in an interview on The RK Show. "But, at the same time, you look at Sunil Narine's stats, a lot of people might be pleasantly surprised as to how… he is not that far behind in terms of his all-round capabilities and how he has contributed to KKR and what he does - with the bat; we know what he does with the ball. So those two have been absolutely brilliant."
Narine has been one of the most threatening T20 bowlers ever. He has been associated with KKR since 2012 and was even part of their two title-winning runs in 2012 and 2014 with Narine playing a crucial role as a bowler. But over the last three season, Narine has transformed himself into an all-rounder after KKR opted to promote Narine as a pinch-hitting batsman in the opening rol alongside Chris Lynn making it one of the most deadly batting combination in world T20 cricket. In the last three seasons of IPL, Narine has scored 224, 357 and 143, at strikes rates of 172.30, 189.89 and 166.27 respectively. Narine was awarded the MVP title in IPL 2018.
Russell, on the other hand, has been the most valuable allrounder in T20 cricket. In the last three IPL seasons, he scored 510, 316 and 188 at a strike rate of 204.81, 184.79 and 164.91 besides also taking 11, 13 and 15 wickets respectively. Russell was awarded the MVP title in IPL 2019.
The two are presently part of the ongoing Caribbean Premier League where they play for Jamaica Tallawahs and Trinbago Knight Riders respectively.
