Guwahati, March 25 Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) bowling coach Bharat Arun has thrown his weight behind Andre Russell, backing the star all-rounder to bounce back in their crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. After an underwhelming performance in their season opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Russell is keen to make a statement in their second match in Guwahati.
KKR endured a tough start to their campaign, losing to RCB by seven wickets. While Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, and Sunil Narine contributed with the bat, their middle order failed to fire. Russell managed just four runs, while Venkatesh Iyer also fell cheaply, exposing a weak link that cost them the match. However, Arun believes Russell’s failure was just a minor blip.
“Sport is about failing. You fail more often than you succeed. Champions like Russell, I think, must be weighing on his mind that he failed the last game, and he is out to prove himself every single game. We are also hoping he will come good in tomorrow's game,” Arun said in the pre-match press conference.
The upcoming clash against the Rajasthan Royals is crucial for both teams. Sanju Samson’s side also suffered a disappointing loss, conceding 286 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad before falling short by 44 runs in their chase. With both teams desperate to get off the mark, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Rajasthan boast a formidable bowling lineup featuring Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, and Sandeep Sharma. Their attack will test KKR’s middle order, which struggled against RCB. "As a team, we are not too worried about it (first game). It's always good to win the first match, you gain the momentum. But there were a lot of positives from the first game, some lessons to be learned from there.”
"Just being game number one can happen, we could have capitalised, we could have got more runs had we not lost wickets towards the end of our batting. Whatever you do, there is always an opportunity to bowl better. But this team is not too worried about it, We will learn from what happened in the last game and try to get better.”
However, Arun remains optimistic, brushing aside concerns about Russell and Rinku Singh’s underwhelming start. “Rinku has batted beautifully in the games leading up to the tournament. We are not too worried about his form,” he stated.
Discussing the overall balance of teams in IPL 2025, Arun emphasized that small moments define matches in such a competitive league. "Every team is batting well, getting and chasing 250-plus scores. You can't say this team is better than the other team. Every team is evenly balanced, batting and bowling pretty well.
"Teams that snatch those crucial moments at any given point in time are going to win. How challenged you are to snatch those crucial moments of the game is important. All teams have some really fantastic batters. There is no point in targeting one, we have to look at the whole team and devise a strategy accordingly. Our game plan is to win.”
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