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Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard backed Hardik Pandya’s decision to open the bowling instead of Jasprit Bumrah and also said that the captain who batted at number seven in his first IPL match against Gujarat Titans was a “collective decision.” An inexplicable batting strategy saw MI lose their opener by six runs here on Sunday after they looked headed for victory. Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bowl first and surprisingly, Hardik opened the bowling against his former team.
“They have to plan and decide what they want to do as a team. Hardik (Pandya) has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat in the last few years. He spun the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new . for us.
“We tried to take advantage of the new ball. When I look at the decision made, there is nothing wrong with it and we moved on,” Pollard said in the post-match press conference.
When the discussion turned to the logic behind Hardik coming into bat at number seven, Pollard said the decision cannot be attributed to the captain.
“There is no decision made on full autonomy, so we can’t say it’s their decision. As a team, we have plans; we talk about setting entry points for batsmen. The top order batted deep into the game, and We also had two power hitters to go on the back end.
“Usually if you look at it over time, Tim (David) has finished games for us and Hardik has done that over the years.
“So at any time, any of them can resurrect the situation. It didn’t happen tonight, so there will probably be a conversation about who should have gone sooner.
“But all those things are in hindsight and as a team we make decisions, so let’s stop saying ‘Hardik made a decision, Hardik did this, Hardik did that’. We are a team. We make decisions collectively as one,” he said. Antillean.
Pollard also supported opener Ishan Kishan and said that he will perform well in the upcoming matches as he is an “experienced” player within the set-up.
“For him, again, he didn’t score tonight so we can see all sorts of different things, but I said it’s a long tournament, he’s an experienced guy within our set-up and we expect big things from Ishan.
“He’s in a good place, he’s been practicing well and he’s done pretty decently, so hopefully in the next two games you’ll be able to see some great performances from him and you’ll all continue to praise his brain when he does it.” “Pollard said.
Kishan was dismissed for a duck by Azmatullah Omarzai.
Four players, including Punjab all-rounder Naman Dhir, made their debut for Mumbai Indians in the team’s first match of IPL 2024.
Pollard was impressed with Dhir’s performance.
“First of all, congratulations to the scouts and all the guys who work behind the scenes and continue to discover all these talents. He was on the radar. For us, he has been within our setup for the last few months, going to England and in development.
“So it was something we had seen in that guy, and he came out and was very expressive.
“Again, with the lofted shot, we’re excited about these things, but I thought he had a lot more to offer. “His calmness, even when we lost that first wicket, and continuing with that intent is a good start for him.
“But again, this is just the beginning of something. In the end, he scored about 20 (runs). Let’s give him that space; let him enjoy the moment.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated channel.)
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