Mumbai Indians assistant coach Robin Singh has said that a big-hitter like Kieron Pollard will be valuable to any T20 team as he can dominate any opposition with his batting prowess. The Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder demolished Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers at the Wankhede and took MI to a victory with his 17-ball 51, smashing six sixes and two boundaries in the process.
“What is really important that when you have someone like Pollard coming in at the backend and you have Jos Buttler just ahead of him, oppositions are never safe with any sort of score on the board.
“As you saw it’s just the question of one over in the game which changes the course of the game, people like Pollard actually you need to have in any team,” said Robin.
“His (Pollard’s) game has matured over the years (and) in the last season he played similar knocks like this right compared to initially when he came in. He can take the game right down till the end and he has understood the responsibility not just as somebody who can just strike the ball but actually somebody who is critical to the side.
“More importantly, it is sending jitters to the opposition", he added.
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Pollard had pulled out of the World T20 earlier this year owing to an injury he sustained in December. Robin, who has been coaching the Mumbai Indians since 2010, told that the Caribbean cricketer has worked hard to get back in shape for the IPL.
“I think he is ok, may be his injury is just getting over. In a situation where he has come back to play much earlier than what we expected, he has done a lot of rehab, we are pretty satisfied even the trainers are satisfied with his fitness.”
Robin also told that the team had strategised to target all-rounder Rajagopal Sathish, who was the soft target in the KKR bowling pack rather than going for Sunil Narine.
On being asked if he was surprised that Narine did not complete his quota, he said, "No, I think, they probably used it as a tactic. Probably they wanted him (Narine) to bowl at the death, probably they thought we won’t take on Sathish but that was the over we (MI) needed to take him on.
“Their strategy did not work because many of their (KKR) main bowlers did not bowl well. The wicket was good to bat on probably the best batting wicket we had in the whole season here.”
Pollard constructed a 72-run partnership with skipper Rohit Sharma, who smashed his fourth half-century of the season. MI will be taking on Rising Pune Supergiants on May 1 in Pune.
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