Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody has stated that Gautam Gambhir was pivotal in Kolkata Knight Riders retaining Andre Russell and Sunil Narine for the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League.

Gambhir has returned to the IPL franchise as a mentor for the 2024 IPL season.

KKR on Sunday retained Russell and Narine along with Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Jason Roy, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Venkatesh Iyer.

Russell joined KKR in 2014, while Narine joined in 2012 and both have been mainstays in the team since then.

“They both have been phenomenal cricketers for KKR. I feel that Gambhir has been quite pivotal in the retention of Russell and Narine. Gambhir understands them, he’s played with them, he’s captained them and he’ll be able to get the best out of them,” said Moody to ESPNCricinfo.

However, Moody also revealed their hesitation regarding Russell’s physical condition instead of his performance. Russell scored 227 runs in 14 matches while picking seven wickets for KKR in IPL 2023.

“I think we’ll see a different outcome in 2024 with regards to what Russell brings to the table. The only hesitation I have is not skill. It’s whether he can hold together physically because we’ve seen him break down on a couple of occasions over recent years and it’s been quite alarming. His bowling has been pretty limited as well, and they haven’t had the access to his full quota of overs,” Moody added.

Oval Invincibles head coach Tom Moody has backed Gus Atkinson to shine with England but warned against judging the fast bowler exclusively by his speeds.

Atkinson has regularly exceeded 90mph in The Hundred while his 10 wickets in 114 deliveries helped the Invincibles collect their maiden men’s title after defeating Manchester Originals in Sunday’s final.

His breakout summer could continue with a first England cap this week as their white-ball schedule gets under way with a four-match T20 series against New Zealand, starting on Wednesday at Chester-le-Street.

An ODI series against the Kiwis follows then the 25-year-old is set to go to India for England’s World Cup defence, and Moody feels the Surrey paceman has the tools to make the grade at international level.

“I think he’ll do very, very well,” Moody told the PA news agency. “Given the opportunity, I see him continuing to spend more time in an England shirt than a Surrey or an Oval Invincibles shirt.

“He clearly has good ball speed and has a grounded character and personality. He’s an exciting talent. Those types of bowlers don’t tend to come along that often.”

Atkinson has been fast-tracked into England’s set-up amid Jofra Archer’s problems with his right elbow, with the pair likened to one another because of similarly smooth actions which generate breakneck pace.

Archer’s briskness has been frequently discussed in the past and Moody believes Atkinson will have to get used to his speeds being a topic of conversation – even if they are not the be-all and end-all.

“It’s the demands of international cricket and the expectation,” Moody said. “When someone sees someone that can bowl at a certain pace, everyone expects them to bowl that pace all the time.

“But at times that’s not possible purely from a physical standpoint and also conditions may not allow you to run in and let fly at that pace consistently.”

Atkinson has significantly enhanced his reputation in recent weeks, as have a number of other domestic talents because of the exposure that comes with every match in The Hundred being televised.

There remains scrutiny on the competition’s future plus its ability to draw in the top names, with Rashid Khan, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy withdrawing from the third edition – albeit due to injury.

But Moody thinks the quality he has witnessed is justification enough for The Hundred to attempt to slot behind the Indian Premier League as the second best domestic tournament in the world.

“To me that’s a no-brainer for English cricket to try to strive to achieve that,” Moody added. “The IPL is the IPL and that’s a separate beast altogether.

“But there’s a number of other franchise tournaments around the world that want to be the second best and there is no reason that England can’t achieve that given the infrastructure and talent they have.

“There’s a lot to like about The Hundred, it seems to have gone from strength to strength.

“The standard of cricket is a very high standard and I think a lot of that is to do with the domestic talent. In England at the moment, there is a lot of high-class white-ball cricketers around.”

Originals head coach Simon Katich agreed with his fellow Australian and argued having just eight teams as opposed to the 18 first-class counties forces the cream to rise to the top.

“There’s so much good talent here in England, particularly in white-ball cricket,” Katich told PA.

“Condensing the talent pool to eight teams has been a real win because it’s going to fast-track the development of a lot of young players to hopefully go on and play for England in the years to come.”

The 100-ball format is still only played professionally in the UK but Katich added: “I think it’s got a lot of merit to it being played in other parts of the world.”

Sherfane Rutherford’s heroics played a significant role in helping the Desert Vipers make their first-ever appearance in an ILT20 final on Wednesday.

After suffering a painful hamstring injury that forced him to leave the field, the Guyanese batsman returned to rescue his team smashing 37 off 19 deliveries including three consecutive sixes off David Wiese.

His heroics would help propel Desert Vipers to 178-7, which proved to be enough as the Vipers dismissed Gulf Giants for 159 in 19.4 overs.

During an interview on the Vipers Voices Podcast afterwards, Rutherford said he knew it was going to be his last game but he wanted to make an impact on the game and help his team.

“It was my idea (to go back out and bat). When I went in (after being injured), I asked my physio if I could go back and bat. He said no and that it was better I just relax,” he explained.

“I told him I could do it, and then he said he was going to discuss it with the coach. At that time Tom Moody was passing by and he said, ‘If he (Rutherford) wants to bat, let us trust him.’ I also knew it was going to be my last game (in the tournament) and I wanted to give it my all, and hopefully I could make an impact for the team.”

After arriving at the crease, he revealed his intentions to Tom Curran, his partner with whom he put on 52 runs which ultimately changed the direction of the match.

 “I knew I could not run, so I said (to Tom Curran) that I was going to try and get boundaries. So, I think that’s where we won the game,” Rutherford said.