How Andre Russell switched on beast mode once again

Andre Russell is batting like no batter ever has in T20 cricket.

Among those with 250 or more death-over runs in a year, Russell's strike rate of 287.50 (276 runs) in 2024 is by far the highest. Heinrich Klaasen, who seems to be batting on a different plane now, is a distant second at 261.68.

During this phase, Russell averages about two sixes per over, and he's in it for more than just a good time. Once in, Russell sees it through: he's batted in 11 innings at the death this year and got out only three times.

We're only three months into 2024 and Russell has 474 T20 runs at an average of 67.71 and strike rate of 226.79, which is a phenomenal improvement from last year. In 2023, Russell's 522 runs came at an average of 26.10 and his strike rate of 155.82 was his lowest in a year since 2011 (min. two innings).

Russell said that a small change he made to his technique had resulted in a big impact to his game.

"I have made a few [technical] changes," he said on the eve of Kolkata Knight Riders' game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. "I was batting in the nets in Abu Dhabi and Sunil [Narine] mentioned something to me as he was watching my technique. And I realised I was moving too much [forward].

"So I worked on my stride towards the delivery. Now having a short stride is working for me. When I look at most big-hitters, they don't really have a big stride. So that's one thing I have done and now I have a bit more time to play the ball. I think that is the one little tweak that I have done. I am trying to move as late as possible. I have good hand speed, so I try to depend on that and just use hand-eye coordination."