Pollard, who served as the team’s batting coach in the last four IPL seasons, takes over from Mahela Jayawardene, who parted ways with the franchise last weekend. The former West Indies all-rounder’s association with MI and its sister franchises goes back to IPL 2010, when he was first signed as a player.
Newly appointed Mumbai Indians head coach Kieron Pollard admitted that the five-time IPL champions had fallen short of their fans expectations in recent seasons, and said the road back to being a fearsome unit begins with owning up to it.
Newly appointed Mumbai Indians head coach Kieron Pollard admitted that the five-time IPL champions had fallen short of their fans expectations in recent seasons, and said the road back to being a fearsome unit begins with owning up to it.
We look forward to having that fire in our belly, and hopefully see a fearless Mumbai Indians once again,” Pollard said in a video posted on the franchise’s social media accounts on Saturday. “You understand as a team that we have not been as great as you want us to be, and that’s something the first step to getting better is acknowledging. “We acknowledge that you are still the most loyal fans to us, the Paltan crew, and hopefully we can continue to show that passion that you have seen over the years, and we can relive some of those memories with some of the new generation cricketers. We look forward to playing with the badge. “But what’s going to happen is that we’re going to try our best now to ensure that we continue to play for that badge, the team above self, and then ensure that when the opposition comes, it’s something that they remembered from the past. Yes, it’s history, but sometimes in order to go forward, you have to go back a little bit and understand. I think that’s where it’s going to start,” he added. “I don’t feel that it has sunk in sort of just yet. But obviously we have and you have mentioned it in terms of what we have created as a team and now being at the helm. I think it’s a surreal sort of feeling when you started, you never envisioned being on the other side of the rope at that time. Pollard, also the head coach of MI London in the The Hundred men’s competition, credited his predecessor Jayawardene for shaping his understanding of the game – first as an opponent, then as a player under his coaching and later as his assistant in the support staff.
The big-hitting Pollard was part of all five of MI’s IPL title-winning campaigns, in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, as well as their two Champions League T20 triumphs in 2011 and 2013.
Outlining his priorities, Pollard said the first job was to understand what needed fixing and to restore the team’s identity at its home ground, adding that there was no hiding from the recent slump. Pollard said the scale of the move to the top job was still sinking in his mind.
