IPL 2025: Varun Chakravarthy clears the air on Andre Russell's retirement speculations

Andre Russell has not been in the best of forms in IPL 2025. The right-arm batter has an average of 18.43 in the IPL 2025, having scored 129 runs at a strike rate of 161.25. However, the all-rounder showed that he has still got it as he smoked 57 off just 25 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Eden Gardens in his team's most recent fixture on May 4.

Meanwhile, there has been plenty of speculation around whether this year’s IPL will be the last for the veteran all-rounder. KKR's mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has cleared the air and given an explanation about the future availability of the 37-year-old cricketer.

“As far as I’ve spoken to him and interacted with him, he still wants to play another two or three cycles of the IPL - which is easily six more years. He looks fine and fit. It doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you’re contributing to the team. That’s the mindset. In franchise cricket, no one’s going to question that,” said Chakravarthy in the post-match interview.

Also read: 'Andre showed why they should give him more balls'- Aakash Chopra praises KKR all-rounder's innings against RR

Speaking of his recent performance, Russell took the time to get himself in before pummelling the spinners in the death overs, particularly Maheesh Theekshana, whom he smashed for three back-to-back maximums. Chakravarthy stated that the Jamaican can hit spinners at will and mentioned that the batter chose a different way to approach the bowlers against RR.

“That’s not true - it’s not like he can’t hit spin. He can hammer spin; we’ve all seen it before. Even in net practice, he smashes it. But today, he chose a different approach, and that was very smart from him. I could see that, and I can tell you it’s part of his development,” the KKR spinner added.

KKR will take on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Eden Gardens on May 7 as they look to strengthen their thin chances to make it into the playoffs.