Former Pakistan great and KKR Bowling coach Wasim Akram has made quite a big revelation about the franchise’s West Indies duo Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.
Wasim Akram, who served as the bowling coach in Calcutta for a few seasons, claimed that Sunil Narine and Andrew Russell both have strange sleep patterns. He learned this information during his successful time with the franchise and during a candid conversation with Narine over breakfast.
Where did Wasim Akram make this revelation?
The Pakistan legend had recently appeared on Sportskeeda’s IPL post-match show and made this shocking revelation in it.
Wasim Akram narrated the entire story to the host and the revelation is shocking. Akram said he got up early for breakfast at the team hotel and one day he saw Sunil Narine appear with his eyes swollen like balloons.
When Akram, the bowling coach saw this, he went to Sunil Narine and asked him in West Indian accent whether he was fine or not as his eyes were all swollen. In response, Narine stated that he did not sleep at night.
The left-hand batsman and right-hand off-spinner informed Akram that he adheres to the West Indies time zone and that he stays awake all night and sleeps during the day. In simple words, Sunil Narine confirmed that he does not live according to the Indian time zone during the IPL summer months.
Now this raises an interesting question: When does Sunil Narine practice? When will Narine have so much time to improve his batting in the nets? And how does he even play for the Knight Riders in weekend afternoon games that start at 3:30 p.m.? And did he terrorize batting units with his deadly off-spin without sleeping at night?
According to Wasim Akram, who also revealed that Andre Russell has the same schedule.
“When I was part of KKR, I used to wake up early for breakfast. Sunil Narine came to breakfast with swollen eyes. I asked him, ‘Hey buddy! What’s up? I asked him why he looked tired. He said I didn’t sleep. What do you mean by that?
“He said I was on West Indies time. I asked him to explain. Sunil said he stays awake at night and sleeps during the day. Even Andre Russell, I think he does the same thing.” – said Wasim Akram on Sportskeeda’s IPL post-match show.
With 286 runs and 9 wickets already, is Sunil Narine on course for his best IPL season ever?
Unlike last season when he scored just 21 runs in 14 games, Sunil Narine is having one of his best IPL seasons ever. Or should we say he’s heading for his best season in the tournament yet? In KKR’s 7 matches, Narine has already scored 286 runs at a strike rate of 176.54 This also includes his maiden IPL century.
With the ball, Narine scalped 9 wickets at a decent economy rate of 7.17. He is less than 100 runs away from achieving his best IPL season, but in terms of wickets, he still needs more than 10 wickets. But overall, given his batting style, it is highly likely that the two-time IPL champion will surpass his highest tally of 357 runs in the 2018 season.