Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the defending champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), have endured a lacklustre campaign so far this season, with three wins and five losses. As a result, they are now languishing at the bottom half of the points table.

Most of their big stars have faltered, including the big-hitting Andre Russell, whose scores read - 4, 5, 1, 7, 17 and 21, making it 45 runs in eight matches.

However, former India captain and coach Anil Kumble reckons that KKR needs to trust Russell more, and the Jamaican needs to bat higher in the order.

"I felt the utilisation of Andre Russell hasn't been really great from a KKR standpoint. I think Russell should bat higher. He should certainly get more opportunities. Just look at the one that they lost to Punjab. I think in the dugout, ideally at that point, you would say, okay, Andre Russell, you go and just finish this game early. If you get on the first ball, it doesn't matter. We still have batting in hand," said Kumble, a JioStar Expert, during a select media interaction.

"But that didn't happen. By the time Russell came, he had to bat with the bowlers. And even in the last game, by the time Russell came, I think the contest was over, 17 and a half, 18 runs and over. It may happen once in 10 games or once in 20 games. It can't happen every time. So that's something that I think KKR need to figure out," he added.

"I felt that they haven't really utilised their resources. If you look at last year's campaign, it was mostly around the starts they used to get with Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. That's not happening this season with their opening batters. And that certainly started putting pressure on their middle order. They have the team, and Rahane is batting really well. At the top of the inning, Venkatesh Iyer hasn't really performed," said Kumble.

"But I think KKR has it in them. It's just a matter of maybe the time that they have now," he concluded.

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