In less than 24 hours, West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell played two matches for two different teams in two different leagues, underperformed and lost both games and saw his team get eliminated from both leagues.

Russell was plying his trade for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in Dubai's ILT20 till Sunday night before he hopped on a flight and joined the Rangpur Riders in Dhaka mere hours before their crucial eliminator match against Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) yesterday.

Rangpur had also drafted in Australia's Tim David and England's James Vince, who were playing for Gulf Warriorz in the ILT20, alongside Russell for the knockout fixture.

But these last-minute inclusions did not work out for Rangpur as Russell, who was out for a first-ball duck the previous night in Dubai, could make just four off nine balls in Dhaka while David (eight) and Vince (one) also did not fare any better.

The three new recruits could not cope with the spin challenge served up by Khulna through captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Nasum Ahmed and Pakistan's Mohammad Nawaz and Rangpur lost the match by nine wickets.

At first glance, it seems that failure to acclimatise with the condition was the primary reason behind the trio's poor scores. However, Rangpur's assistant coach Mohammad Ashraful did not concur.

"They arrived in business class so there shouldn't be a problem with that and the weather too is not very different from Dubai. But they [only Russell] had played last night, that might have been an issue. But they are professional cricketers. I don't think it [acclimatisation] was a big issue," Ashraful said.

Teams flying in marquee overseas players for the knockout stage is nothing new in BPL. In fact, Rangpur's opponents Khulna did the same thing as they also brought in the West Indian duo of Jason Holder and Shimron Hetmyer, also from the ILT20, right before the eliminator.

All of Rangpur and Khulna's newest recruits arrived after their respective sides got ousted in the ILT20. Players hopping from one league to another like this has become the norm in the current landscape of franchise cricket. The mushrooming of franchise leagues is offering opportunities to players to represent different teams in different leagues in a matter of days and in Russell's case, it was less than a day.

Because of this, franchises, especially in BPL, have to always be on the look out for replacements, plan ahead of time about who they can bring in at what point. Meanwhile, fans struggle to form a connection with the players who are here one day and gone the next.

According to Ashraful, losing a settled overseas star like Pakistan's Khushdil Shah, who left the side for national duty, and not finding his ideal replacement cost them against Khulna. The former Bangladesh captain also suggested that drafting in players only for the playoffs is not ideal.

"In England, you need to play three league-stage matches to be permitted to play knockout matches. We don't have any such rule in the BPL. Players can arrive on the day of the match and play. It is not ideal… When you don't spend two-three days with the team, it's difficult to even recognise your teammates."