IPL 2024: Don’t complain but adjust, says Andre Russell backs ‘militant’ KKR coach

New Delhi: Every coach has a distinct way of functioning and it is the players’ responsibility to adjust to his demands, Kolkata Knight Riders star Andre Russell said to back head coach Chandrakant Pandit’s way of functioning.

Pandit replaced Brendon McCullum at the hot seat of the two-time IPL champions last year. KKR filed to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament last year.

All-rounder David Wiese was part of the team and recently claimed that many overseas players of the team grew frustrated by Pandit’s tough handling, which he termed “militant”.

Russell refuted that claim, saying that as professional cricketers they need to adapt to how the coach wants and not the other way round.

“We’ve been working with him from last year. I think when you’re working with a coach for the first time, you have to make sure that you adjust to their philosophy. There have to be rules. We are professionals. So, we don’t complain,” he said in KKR’s pre-match press interaction on Thursday.

KKR face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in an away game on Friday, having beaten Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first game in Kolkata.

The West Indian said, just like him, Pandit is also trying to do his best to help the team win.

Pandit is a successful coach in the domestic circuit and is known as a disciplinarian, which Weiss alluded to when he said that “he (Pandit) is known in India as a very militant type of coach”.

While speaking on the podcast ‘Hitman for Hire: A year in the life of a franchise cricketer’, Weiss added that in franchise teams where there are overseas guys who’ve played all over the world, they don’t need anyone coming and telling them how they need to behave, what they need to wear and what they need to do the whole time.