IPL 2023: Kieron Pollard wants Mumbai Indians batters to fire in unison against CSK

After the failure of the top-order in their IPL opener, Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard is expecting the batters to fire in unison in the much-awaited clash against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings here on Saturday. MI were reduced to 48/4 by RCB at one stage before rescue acts from Tilak Verma (84) and Nehal Wadhera (21) dragged them to 171/7, which in the end proved too less against RCB.

“I believe all batters have to fire. I do not think we should not single out any individual. Cricket is played with eleven players, and again, the tournament has just started so everyone is just looking to start (on a) high… "Yes we did not get off to a great start as a batting unit but in the end we managed a decent total in Bangalore. Let us see what happens since we are back at Wankhede,” Pollard said on the eve of the game.

The Mumbai Indians’ batting coach categorically declined that the team was concerned over the form of mainstay Suryakumar Yadav, the world No 1 T20I batter who flopped in the first game while coming off a horrendous ODI series against Australia.

“We have no concerns on Surya’s form, again. I believe you guys make more of it than we do sometimes within the team set up.

"People have bad days and that is unfortunate as cricketers our bad days are highlighted and we keep speaking on and on about it rather than trying to look at the positive or what he has done over the past 18 months or so in cricket as an individual,” Pollard said.

“We do it on a day-by-day basis and the way he is striking the ball, the way he is training we have got confidence that he will do justice to his talent and we will continue to back him." Pollard said it is important for MI to keep focus on the playing eleven that they will field and not worry about the impact player rule.

“To be honest I have not thought much about the impact player rule. A lot of thoughts have been flying around about it but for me you still have to go out and play cricket, impact or no impact.

"As players you have to make an impact on the field anyway. For us, it is about focusing on what needs to be done from every individual,” he said. 

Image: BCCI