Mumbai Indians Captain Hardik Pandya throughout The IPL 17 2024 Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indian Cricket Match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on March 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji
Mumbai Indians’ batting coach Kieron Pollard backed Hardik Pandya’s transfer to open the bowling as a substitute of Jasprit Bumrah and likewise stated the skipper batting at quantity seven of their IPL opener in opposition to Gujarat Titans was a “collective decision”.
An inexplicable batting technique noticed MI lose their opener by six runs in Ahmedabad on Sunday after they seemed heading in the right direction for victory.
Mumbai Indians gained the toss and opted to bowl first and surprisingly, Hardik opened the bowling in opposition to his former facet.
“You have to plan and decide what you want to do as a team. Hardik (Pandya) has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat over the last couple of years. He swung the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new to us.
“We tried to make use of the benefit of the brand new ball swinging alongside. When I look at the choice made, there’s nothing mistaken with it, and we transfer on,” Pollard said at the post-match press conference.
When the discussion turned to the logic behind Hardik coming in to bat at number seven Pollard said one can’t attribute the decision to the skipper.
“No choice is made on full autonomy, so we won’t say it’s his choice. As a crew, we’ve got plans; we speak about setting entry factors for batters. The high order batted deep into the sport, and we additionally had two energy hitters to go within the again finish.
“Usually, if you look at it over time, Tim (David) has finished games for us, and Hardik has done it over the years.
“So, at any level, any one in all them can resurrect the scenario. It did not occur tonight, so there’ll seemingly be a chat about who ought to have gone earlier.
“But all of those things are in hindsight, and as a team, we make decisions, so let’s put a stop to ‘Hardik made a decision, Hardik did this, Hardik did that’. We are a team. We make decisions collectively as one,” the West Indian stated.
Pollard additionally threw his weight behind embattled opener Ishan Kishan and stated he’ll come good within the coming matches as he’s an “experienced” participant inside the setup.
(*7*)He is in a good house, he has been practising effectively and has been doing pretty decently, so hopefully inside the subsequent couple of video games, you’ll be able to see nice performances from him and all of you’ll proceed to laud his brains when he does that,” Pollard said.
Kishan was dismissed for a duck by Azmatullah Omarzai.
Four players, including Punjab all-rounder Naman Dhir, made their Mumbai Indians debut in the team’s opening fixture of IPL 2024.
Pollard was impressed with Dhir’s performance.
“Firstly, kudos go to the scouts and all the fellows who work behind the scenes and proceed to unearth all of those abilities. He was on the radar. For us, he has been inside our setup for the final couple of months, going to England and growing.
“So it was something that we’d seen in that guy, and he came out and was very expressive.
“Again, with the lofted shot, we’re enthusiastic about these items, however I assumed he had rather more to supply. His calmness, even once we misplaced that first wicket, and persevering with with that intent is a good begin for him.
“But again, this is merely the start of something. At the end of it, he scored 20-odd (runs). Let’s give him that space; let him enjoy the moment.”
