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Why is Andre Russell not playing in today’s West Indies vs New Zealand match | Cricket World Cup 2019

Gurpreet Singh
|Published June 22, 2019

SL vs WI Dream11 Prediction : Sri Lanka vs West Indies Best Dream 11 Team for 1st T20 — TAUNTON, ENGLAND – JUNE 17: Andre Russell of West Indies bowls during the Group Stage match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between West Indies and Bangladesh at The County Ground on June 17, 2019 in Taunton, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Why is Andre Russell not playing in today’s vs West Indies vs New Zealandmatch of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Manchester

The West Indian star all-rounder Andre Russell has been left out of the Playing 11 for the West Indies vs New Zealand Match 29 of the ICC Cricket World Cup at The Old Trafford in Manchester.

Having lost their previous encounter against Bangladesh the last thing Windies camp would have wanted is their ace all-rounder in the team to warm the benches at the sidelines.

Owing to knee injury

After winning the Toss, the Windies captain Jason Holder decided to field first at the warm and sunny conditions at Manchester. The 31-year old has been facing serious injury concerns for quite some time now. He was seen limping while on the field during his team’s previous fixture against Bangladesh.

Russell will miss out today’s game due to his sustained knee injury which has been a roadblock for him since the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. During the IPL too, Russell had carried on providing his services to his Franchise- Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) despite his left side of the body taped-up from top to bottom.

Talking about his last performance against Bangladesh, the all-rounder was pretty ordinary both with the bat and ball. While he was Out on a duck (0 off 2), he went for 42 runs in his 7 overs, at an economy of 7 runs per over.

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3 changes in the Windies side

The Windies have in fact made three changes for the match versus New Zealand. Apart from Andre Russell, the Southpaw batsman- Darren Bravo and pacer Shannon Gabriel have also been left out of the squad.

Darren Bravo was sent in at no.8 in the previous match against Bangladesh, and dropping him out of the Playing 11 perhaps is a little harsh on him.

Shannon Gabriel, on the other hand failed to impress with his fast bowling, as he was pummelled for as many as 78 runs in 8.3 overs. Both the aforementioned have made way for Ashley Nurse and Kemar Roach in side.

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About the author

Gurpreet Singh

Even before persuing his post-graduate diploma in English journalism from IIMC, Gurpreet was certain that Cricket had to be the driving force to keep him sane and optimistic in all life-related matters. Hailing from Ranchi and having represented Jharkhand at the Under-14 level, he believes that the more you keep digging in while understanding the nitty-gritty of a sport, the more humble you become with the realisation that you hardly know anything!