Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Dwayne Bravo threw his weight behind all-rounder Andre Russell, following the loss to Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2025 on Monday. Russell failed to lit up KKR’s 199 chase against GT, despite scoring just his second double-digit score this season — a stuttering 21 off 15 balls. After the match, Bravo was questioned about Russell’s struggles in IPL 2025, especially against spinners. However, Bravo played down the talks, saying Russell isn’t the only one struggling for runs at KKR.

“Andre Russell is an experienced and successful player. Yes, in a couple of games, the leg-spinners got him out. But I don’t think we are batting well as a team. That is the reality. Russell is not the only one struggling. As a group, we have to ensure players are backed. We need to keep preparing well. IPL is a tough tournament. If you don’t start well, batters can go into a period where they lose confidence,” said Bravo, who is a four-time IPL winner.

Bravo rued over the fact that KKR’s top-order has failed to provide good starts this season, making the job tougher for finishers like Russell and Rinku Singh.

“Not every team has leg-spinners and today he was up against a quality spinner like Rashid Khan. When Russell walks in to bat, every time the run rate is at 14 or 15 runs per over. Work needs to be done at the top to give him a chance to finish off games like he has been doing all these years for KKR. Yes, leg-spinners got him out a few times, but I don’t think that is a big concern. We just need to bat better (at the top) to allow our finishers the chance to finish games,” he added.

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, who scored a fighting half-century, his third of the season, also put the blame on batters after the 39-run loss to GT.

“When you are chasing a big target, you expect a good start with your opening batters; that’s what we are looking to get better as a batting unit,” he said. “No complaints with our bowlers, I thought bowlers are doing a really good job. Game by game, they are improving a lot.

“We know these conditions really well, [but] we need to bat properly, we need to bat well in the middle overs, that’s what we are struggling [with] as a batting unit.”