‘These people speak and they don’t understand what persons go through’ – Kieron Pollard on backing out-of-form MI players

Mumbai Indians’ vice-captain Kieron Pollard has hit out at the cricket experts for their judgements over a few out-of-form players in the team. On Tuesday, September 28, the Mumbai-based team made a comeback in the 2021 Indian Premier League after three losses on the trot. In their previous game, they beat the Punjab Kings by six wickets at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

For the encounter, Mumbai decided to drop Ishan Kishan and talks surrounding Suryakumar Yadav’s poor run of form have also been doing the rounds. Pollard, who scored a quickfire seven-ball 15 in MI’s successful run-chase, stated that injecting confidence into the players is of prime importance.

Pollard said that the players, who are not being to score runs of late, are more than capable since they have played match-winning knocks on quite a few instances.

For us, it’s backing about backing individuals, says Kieron Pollard

“It’s just a matter of trying to give those guys the confidence to show that they have done it before and they can do it again, or finding the problems of what is actually happening and try to find the best solution.

“So that’s all it could be…These are guys who have done it for us time and time again. It’s difficult when you have a lot of other people on the outside as well speaking about it,” Pollard was quoted as saying in the post-match press conference.

“At the end of the day, these people speak and they don’t understand what persons go through as cricketers. So, for us, it’s backing about backing individuals and trying to give them the confidence to do well because they are young, talent individuals,” he added.

Pollard also had words of praises for Saurabh Tiwary, who top-scored for MI in their run-chase against PBKS. The left-hander scored a 37-ball 45 with three fours and two sixes before Nathan Ellis got rid of him in the 16th over.

Pollard mentioned that Tiwary has thrived under pressure more often than not and called him the backbone of MI’s batting in Tuesday’s game. After the victory, Mumbai went up to the fifth spot and are placed below the Kolkata Knight Riders.