Is Kieron Pollard becoming a burden for Mumbai Indians?-Opinion News , Firstpost

Kieron Pollard of Mumbai Indians takes catch of Tim Southee of the Kolkata Knight Riders during match 56 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2022 (IPL season 15) between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders held at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on the 9th May 2022. Image: Sportzpics

Mumbai Indians would largely like to forget how IPL 2022 has gone for them. Their defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday night effectively summed up their outing this year and they will soon be packing their bags and returning home to ruminate on how things may have been. Among those will be Kieron Pollard, whose long flight home will give him time to reflect on how badly things have gone, for MI and also for him. This is one IPL he’d like to forget in a hurry, but this will be one IPL the team will remember, and may well have far-reaching ramifications for the teams of the future.

Pollard was among those retained by MI ahead the IPL 2022 player auction and his fortune, along with the others who the management put faith in, has been quite poor. Skipper Rohit Sharma has struggled, while Suryakumar Yadav is now out of action for the rest of the tournament.

Then they spent a big amount on bringing back Ishan Kishan, and the wicketkeeper has been off and on.

Ironically, the best performances in the batting line-up have come from the younger lot in Dewald Brevis and Tilak Varma. The rest have simply floundered.

As has Pollard. The giant West Indian has been a pillar of strength for Mumbai Indians for almost as long as one cares to remember. Any time MI needed runs in a rush, be it setting a target or achieving one, Pollard used to be in the thick of things, with a fearsome array of shot and a strike rate that many batters would die for.

But as you look at the figures now, you can see that he has been but a hollow shadow of the Pollard of the yore.

With just 144 runs from 11 innings, Pollard stands at the 50th spot on the IPL 2022 batting list. He has a top score of 25 and averages a meagre 14.40. His strike rate is a forgettable 107.46.

While this is all symptomatic of the way MI have played this season, the reason for certain players to retained would be that they deliver. Granted, they are retained for their past performances, but the expectation that they will come good at least some time during a season is not without justification.

So, has Pollard outlived his utility for Mumbai Indians? One could always respond that this is just a one-off, but one-off by definition would mean one inning, or two. To be at the poor end of 11 attempts is an epidemic.

Granted, he has been left with a lot to do when he comes in to bat, thanks to the wobbly top and middle-order, but that in itself was his role to start with – to come in and score rapidly.

However, he just doesn’t seem to be getting off the ground and with just two matches left for the franchise, it is unlikely that he will.

Others batter have found themselves in similar positions and made some excellent comebacks. Some of them, like Rahul Tewatia, are not even considered to be a threat. This is where the ineffectiveness of any player becomes even more stark.

Even his bowling isn’t that much of a weapon any more. He has bowled in six innings and picked up four wickets, at an economy of 8.92 and an average of 31.25, striking at 21.00.

While this was never his strongest suite, at least he would be up there in terms of economy and restricting runs. All of that seems to have abandoned the man this year.

So where does all of this leave Pollard? Not in a good place, for sure. While it would be premature to say that MI will wash their hands off the player in a rush, Pollard isn’t getting any younger, so it will always be an uphill fight.

Mumbai Indians, like Chennai Super Kings, will now have to look to the future. That is something they began with the IPL 2022, picking up players like Brevis, but their core needs to be looked at again, for sure.

There is no doubt that players like Suryakumar or Jasprit Bumrah will not always be in the debit account (Bumrah has already come back with bang) but some, like Pollard, threaten to become a considerable weight on the side, which may slow its progress.

The team will defend him, like they have others, for this poor year, but there is no doubt that there will be a time soon when they will have to look beyond. One wonders how long Pollard will be in the scheme of things for Mumbai Indians. Not long, one could venture to guess.

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