Andre Russell

Over the past few years, few sides can compete with West Indies for the alarming rate at which they have chopped and changed their sides. Youngsters have been blooded in with gay abandon but either inexperience or lack of opportunities has resulted in them being unsuccessful at the international stage.

A fast bowling all-rounder, Andre Russell was one of the few new faces in a revamped West Indies squad for the 2010 Test tour to Sri Lanka. The Jamaican who impressed for West Indies A with both bat and ball on their 2010 England tour followed it up with a fine domestic tournament in the Caribbean which earned him a call-up to the national side.

A pacer who believes in bowling in the right areas rather than striving for pace, Russell’s hard hitting abilities combined with his electrifying fielding make him a fine prospect. He showed that with a brilliant batting display against England in a league game during the ICC CWC 2011, nearly taking the Windies home. Russell’s rise to fame also landed him a contract with Delhi in the Indian T20 league. He couldn’t play a lot of games for the franchise and was subsequently bought by Kolkata in 2014.

In the year 2016, Russell was found guilty of missing three doping test in a period of 12 months and was handed a one year ban from cricket. More than for the national team, Russell built his name playing for different franchises all around the globe. His muscular batting and ability to demolish any bowling attack made him one of the most feared batsmen in the world.

The year 2019 was wonderful for him as he won the Player of the Tournament award for his all-round performance in the Indian T20 League. He smashed 510 runs at a strike rate in excess of 200 and also picked 11 wickets for Kolkata. Although his team had a disappointing season, he emerged as one big positive. Russell was included in the West Indian World Cup squad for 2019. During one of the matches in the mega event, he became the fastest batsman to complete 1000 ODI runs, in terms of balls faced. The all-rounder thought suffered a knee injury and had to pull out midway of the tournament.