'He is an injury waiting to happen': Simon Doull sounds warning for KKR superstar; suggests 'way forward' for Kolkata

The former New Zealand quick had a warning for the KKR player and further suggested to the management how they could alternatively use him.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) faced a narrow three-wicket loss in their second game of the 2022 Indian Premier League against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In a low-scoring game at the DY Patil Stadium, KKR were bowled out on 128 before Faf du Plessis' side held its nerves to chase down the target with four balls remaining. This was RCB's first win in the current edition.

KKR players during IPL 2022. (IPL)

While the bowlers shined for both sides in the closely-fought match, Knight Riders might be particularly concerned over the bowling performance of their star all-rounder Andre Russell. While the West Indian was the highest run-scorer for the KKR (25 off 18 balls), Russell was hugely expensive with the ball, conceding 36 runs in merely 2.2 overs without a wicket.

The West Indies bowler was fairly expensive during the side's opening game against Chennai Super Kings as well, where he ended with figures of 1/38 in four overs.

Former New Zealand bowler Simon Doull talked in detail about Russell's outings with the ball on Cricbuzz, following RCB's victory against KKR. The former Kiwi pacer warned Russell that he could be an “injury waiting to happen,” further suggesting the Knight Riders that they can use the Windies star purely as a batter.

“You'd like to think that you get four overs out of Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, and even a couple of round arms from Nitish Rana if you had to. Most teams are very similar. Very few teams in this competition have five out-and-out bowlers -- one or two who can bat. It is very difficult to find in T20 cricket. So they've got four genuine bowlers, and even Pat Cummins will come back, they still got four very good bowlers,” said Doull.

"Chakravarthy will have more good nights than bad. But if you can't rely on 4 overs from Russell, Iyer, and Rana, there's something wrong. I know everybody is worried as soon as Andre Russell dives but you can't play the game like that. If they're worried about it, don't play him. Or don't bowl him at all. Just tell Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana that you two are going to be our fifth bowlers.

“You just hope Russell wins you three games with the bat. In this competition, you are asking every player to win 1-2-3 games. So that might be the way forward. He's just struggling with the ball. And his body has such an enormous muscle. He might be truly over 105-108 kilos; just that enormous mass going through that stress from time to time is not easy. He is an injury waiting to happen, which is a shame because I love watching all of his trades.”

The Knight Riders will return to action on April 1 when the side takes on the Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.