Kolkata Knight Riders’ vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer has defended the team’s think tank decision to back Andre Russell in the lower-order. Russell has been batting down the order and hasn’t been able to bring his best in IPL 2025.

While admitting that the West Indian is a proven match-winner, Iyer said they have batters like Ramandeep Singh and Rinku Singh, who can play a similar aggressive role.

In the ongoing IPL 2025, Russell has batted at seven or lower, raising doubts over his role. The hard-hitter has scored 20 runs off 17 balls he has faced in the tournament. 

Iyer said the entry point of any batter depends on how the pitch is playing. 

Venkatesh Iyer said in the pre-match presser, “I think from the analytics point of view, entry point is a huge thing. Once you assess if a certain pitch is going to suit an individual or not, you decide his entry point whether it will be early or give him a few overs.

“Obviously, people [outside] would be talking about when he should come and when he should not. But we should not forget that we have Rinku Singh also. We have Ramandeep Singh also. Yes, Dre [Andre Russell] has been doing this for a very long time, but we have got able competition for him as well,” the 30-year-old went on to add.

KKR will take on Chennai Super Kings on Friday at Chennai and Iyer said Varun Chakravarthy would look to make the most of the known conditions at Chepauk.

He said, “Irrespective of the conditions, I think Varun is a world-class spinner now. But yeah, him playing in his home ground is going to be of huge importance. It’s going to be a huge factor as well, also considering that Ajinkya played here for two years, Moeen Ali played for two years. So, I think we’ve got a good think tank as well with regards to how this pitch will play.”

KKR has won two out of their five matches so far in IPL 2025.