‘I'll still enjoy our banter in the nets’ - Jasprit Bumrah shares heartfelt message for Kieron Pollard after latter’s IPL retirement

All of the ten IPL franchises announced their retentions and releases ahead of the upcoming IPL Auction 2023 on Tuesday, November 15, and moments before that came a piece of shocking news from one of the IPL legendary batters.

Kieron Pollard, who had been an integral part of the Mumbai Indians set-up since the 2009 edition as a player, announced his retirement from IPL on social media and will now provide his services as their batting coach.

Pollard played some invaluable innings over the years for the franchise, however, he endured a poor season in IPL 2022 which might have led to the decision. He was retained by the franchise ahead of the mega auction last year for INR 6 CR. However, he contributed just 144 runs in 11 matches and the franchise’s poor performance did not help the situation either.  

Overall, the 35-year-old played 189 games for Mumbai Indians in which he scored 3412 runs at an average of 28.67 and at a strike rate just above 147.32. The Caribbean-lad had also been part of five title-winning campaigns and did enjoy great success in the cash-rich tournament. His teammate Jasprit Bumrah penned a heartfelt message for Pollard on the latter’s retirement through an Instagram post.  

Here's the Instagram post from Jasprit Bumrah

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by jasprit bumrah (@jaspritb1)

"It'll take some used to you not being on the field out there with us, but I'll still enjoy our banter in the nets. Congratulations on an incredible career Polly and all the best for your new innings," Jasprit Bumrah captioned his post on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians let go of quite a few players to stack up their purse for the mini-auction coming up on December 23 in Kochi.  

Mumbai Indians released players: Kieron Pollard (retired), Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Daniel Sams, Fabian Allen, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Rahul Buddhi, Riley Meredith, Sanjay Yadav, Tymal Mills