Andre Russell And...? 3 KKR Stars Who Performed Brilliantly In 2024

Bhargav Dixit∙ Updated: Jan 1 2025, 3:00 AM

Andre Russell won five Player of the Match awards in 2024. [Source: @KRxtra/X]Andre Russell won five Player of the Match awards in 2024. [Source: @KRxtra/X]

With the auction for the 18th season of the Indian Premier League a thing of the past now, no franchise would mind its players excelling across formats around the world before hitting the ground running for the biggest T20 league in less than three months from now. One of the two franchises to save a mere INR 5 lakh during the auction, KKR would be thrilled by the latest form of some of their players.

With some of them scheduled to participate in different T20 leagues before joining Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL 2025, there’s enough time for everyone to fine-tune their skills before the cricketing extravaganza commences in March.

Andre Russell

Third retained player behind Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy, veteran all-rounder Andre Russell justified the franchise’s decision of making him an integral part of the KKR universe.

Not expected to be among the top-scorers or wicket-takers, Russell creating impact for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, West Indies, Comilla Victorians, Kolkata, Los Angeles Knight Riders, London Spirit and Trinbago Knight Riders throughout the year sees him being a sought-after name in the shortest format even at 36.

Russell, who hasn’t played a first-class and List A match in over a decade and half-a-decade respectively, managed to remain in the limelight throughout the year. While Russell’s 1,075 runs across 51 innings came at an average of 30.71 and a strike rate of 185.34, he picked 49 wickets across 56 innings at an average of 26.22, an economy rate of 9.44 and a strike rate of 16.65.

Readers must note that Russell’s batting strike rate is the second-highest (min. 500 runs) in the format this year. Had Russell dismissed another batter, he would’ve been among the four all-rounders to have scored 500 runs and picked 50 wickets in 2024 T20s.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz

Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz is an all-rounder in another sense. Fifth on the list of most T20 dismissals among wicket-keepers in 2024, the right-handed batter is also the sixth-highest ODI run-scorer of the year.

In 52 T20 innings this year, Gurbaz scored 1,269 runs at an average and strike rate of 24.88 and 140.84 respectively. In 11 ODIs, his 531 runs have come at 48.27 and 89.69 making him one of the three batters to register three hundreds in the format. Thus, having played for them in the last two seasons, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in Knight Riders’ Playing XI ahead of Quinton de Kock.

Ajinkya Rahane

If truth be told, as was the case during IPL 2022 auction, Kolkata bought veteran India batter Ajinkya Rahane towards the end of the auction as a back-up option. The team management, however, would be delighted they did so whilst watching Rahane’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024/25 batting highlights.

Adjudged the Player of the Tournament for scoring most runs in Mumbai’s title-winning campaign, the 36-year-old player ended up with 469 runs at an average and strike rate of 58.62 and 164.56 respectively including five half-centuries. That the back-up batter is being considered to lead Knight Riders is the biggest vindication for the owners buying him at his base price of INR 1.5 crore.

Elsewhere, the right-handed batter scored 378 runs at an average of 42 and a strike rate of 89.15 during 10 One-Day Cup innings for Leicestershire. Rahane, who also touched the three-figure mark once across six County Championship Division Two innings, hasn’t represented India in over a year now.