Windies team for World Cup should be Andre Russell plus any 10 players, says Brian Lara
The 17th match of this IPL season saw Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Chinnaswamy stadium. Virat Kohli's team were in search of their first win, having lost their first four games.
Dinesh Karthik won the toss and elected to bowl first. Bangalore was off to a good start and the captain Kohli was in a mood for a big score. AB de Villiers joined Kohli after Parthiv Patel's dismissal, and the pair started tearing apart the KKR bowlers. Both of them added a 100-run partnership for the 9th time in IPL, which is joint-most with Kohli and Gayle. Kohli got out after scoring 84 runs. On the other hand, ABD smashed 63 runs in 32 balls which included four sixes.
Chasing a massive target, KKR was off to a good start. Chris Lynn, who has not had a great season, finally struck some form. When Uthappa and Lynn were going well, RCB captain Virat Kohli brought in the left arm spinner Pawan Negi who got rid of both the players to put RCB in a stronger position. Rana and captain Karthik played their part as well.
When DK got out, KKR still needed to score 52 runs in 18 balls. That's when the unexpected (is it though?) happened. Andre Russell, who is having a fabulous season, almost connected every ball that he had faced for a maximum. The West Indian giant smashed 47 runs in nine balls which includes seven massive sixes. Kohli could not believe his eyes as Russell's carnage helped KKR to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Everyone was in awe of this superhuman innings. Former West Indies captain Brian Lara went on to say that Windies cricket board's first choice should be Andre Russell for the 2019 World Cup. Here is what he had tweeted.
Yesterday's match was not the first time Andre Russell turned it around with the bat. Dre Russ has almost made a habit of snatching victories from the jaws of defeat this season.
It's been nine months now since Andre Russell last played an ODI for the Windies. There's absolutely no doubt that West Indies would benefit from his form going into the World Cup and it wouldn't be surprising to see him in the Windies mix soon.