Pathan Has His Say On Sunil Narine, Andre Russell's Lacklustre Performances
Narine & Russell have been mere shadow of their supreme best (Twitter)
In an exclusive interview with ESPN Cricinfo, the former Kolkata Knight Riders pinch hitter Yusuf Pathan expressed his growing concerns about the performance issues of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine who have been a mainstay of KKR line up for quite some time.
Russell started playing in KKR colours back in 2014 and has taken his side from moments of thick and thin. The Caribbean superstar has laid several bowling oppositions to rest with his explosive batting ability. He has accumulated over 2000 runs in his entire IPL career at an astronomical strike rate of over 170.
His West Indian counterpart Sunil Narine, made his IPL debut with KKR back in 2012 and blossomed like a flower during his early part of his IPL career. Narine had the brilliant ability to churn out consistent match winning performances with the bat and the ball.
But it is not the past performance which matters to Pathan. It is the current dip in form which has got the 40-year-old wondering. According to him, the duo has not been at their fluent best in the past couple of seasons and opined KKR think tank to consider viable alternatives.
"We should see how Narine and Russell have performed in the last three years, or how many match-winning performances they have put in with bat or ball," Pathan said.
Their lacklustre form with the bat and the ball in the ongoing IPL season has been a sign of concern for the KKR management. Meanwhile, the two-time champions are almost on the brink of the elimination.
"As a team, what do you think? If you want to look ahead to the future and go to the next level, then you should surely think about it, because if you look at the last few seasons, their performance hasn't been as good. As a senior player, there are expectations from you that you would get wickets or runs. If you are not able to do it, then you will have to face the questions."
So far in this season, Narine has only managed to get 7 wickets in 12 games whilst going at 8.50 runs per over which is unusually shocking by his standards. Russell, on the other hand, has a strike of over 150 but has immensely fallen short of runs this season.
 "Datrim")