Kieron Pollard in Mumbai Indians dugout© BCCI/Sportzpics
Back on the cricket field, Mumbai Indians wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan couldn’t even open his account with the bat, incurring a duck as Mumbai Indians were beaten by Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 opener on Sunday. Ishan has been a player under intense debate ever since he decided to skip Ranji Trophy assignments to prepare for the T20 league. A duck in the opening game didn’t do his situation any good but mentor Kieron Pollard continues to believe in the player.
Speaking to media in the post-match press conference, Pollard ducked the questions around Ishan, refusing to comment much on the ‘controversial circumstances’ surrounding the wicket-keeper batter.
“I don’t understand the controversial circumstances. You have stated clearly as to why he wasn’t playing so I guess we need to take that into consideration. Everything as a player and individual as well, playing international sports is very very tough, it’s not very easy as people would think,” Pollard said in the presser.
Ishan’s future in the Indian team as well as in the MI squad could be under the scanner if he fails to fire, considering there will be a mega auction next year, but Pollard said that he expects big things from the left-hander.
“For him, again, he did not score tonight so, we can look at all sorts of different things, but I said it’s a long tournament, he is an experienced guy within our setup and we expect big things from Ishan, he is in a good space, he has been practicing well and has been doing fairly decently, so hopefully within the next couple of games, you can see great performances from him and all of you will continue to laud his brains when he does that,” Pollard added.
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