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Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a heartbreaking defeat against the Royal Challengers Bangalore by three wickets. In the first innings, KKR batting was bundled out for 128 in 18.5 overs. They pushed for a comeback in the second innings but fell short in the end. But their biggest concern from the match would be a possible shoulder injury to their all-rounder Andre Russell. 

KKR coach Brendon McCullum revealed that the Caribbean all-rounder suffered a sore shoulder while fielding on the boundary. He said,  “Dre had run around the boundary, dived and stopped that boundary for us which was fantastic. Unfortunately, he just picked up a little bit of a bump, which meant his shoulders were little bit sore. But Dre being Dre, he still wanted to try and get the job done. He wasn’t quite able to but, look, those are the things which happen in low-scoring games.” 

"I actually loved the intent, to be honest. I thought the intent was great. You back the fact that you played the extra batter, and you played a long batting line-up. You don't anticipate being bowled out obviously," McCullum continued. 

"Honestly I felt we didn't have a lot of luck today. Every time we sort of went for our aggressive option, we seemed to find a fielder or things didn't quite go our way. That can happen sometimes. But I want us to continue to keep that intent because that served us so well last year. The way we set our teams up at the auction, and the players we picked, it suits them as well," the Kiwi added.

He is an injury waiting to happen- Doull

Former New Zealander fast bowler Simon Doull also talked about how Andre Russell, because of his physique, is always on the verge of getting injured. While speaking on the Cricbuzz analysis show, Doull said, "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."