Chandrakant Pandit (left) and André Russell© X (formerly Twitter)
Senior all-rounder Andre Russell on Thursday backed Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Chandrakant Pandit, whose coaching style was described as ‘militant’ by former KKR all-rounder David Wiese. Wiese, who now plies his trade for Namibia, claimed that many KKR foreign players were frustrated by Pandit’s tough operating style during last year’s IPL. However, Jamaican Russell, who is an integral part of KKR’s core team, sounded different. “We have been working with him since last year. I think when you work with a coach for the first time, you have to make sure you adapt to their philosophy. There must be rules. We are professionals. So, we’re not complaining,” Russell said in the pre-match press conference.
“I’m trying to do my best for this franchise. He did an incredible job and we are coming back as well,” he added.
Pandit, known as a disciplinarian, had taken over as KKR coach ahead of IPL 2022 after Brendon McCullum took up the job as England head coach.
“He (Pandit) is known in India as a very activist coach. He’s very strict, very disciplinarian, that sort of thing.
“Sometimes in franchise cricket when you have foreign players who have played all over the world, they don’t need someone to come and tell them how they should behave, what they should wear and what which they have to do during the whole match. time.
“So it was tough,” Wiese said recently on the “Hitman for Hire: A Year in the Life of a Franchise Cricketer” podcast.
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