‘He can bat, bowl, field, has X factor’: Kieron Pollard defends Hardik Pandya after MI loss to CSK

Former West Indies skipper and current batting coach of Mumbai Indians, Kieron Pollard, defended Hardik Pandya after the team’s loss to Chennai Super Kings by 20 runs on Sunday’s Indian Premier League match in Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium. Pollard asked fans to lay off the Mumbai Indians skipper and to not nitpick on him. He said he is sick and fed up of people holding one team member responsible for the loss of the team. 

CSK legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit 26 runs, including three consecutive sixes, in the final over that was bowled by Hardik Pandya. The stadium roared to the hits, which is likely to have taken its toll on Pandya’s performance. He also bowled two wides at the crucial time. Notably, CSK won by 20 runs, accentuating the impact of Dhoni’s hits. 

Pollard, at the post-match press conference said, “You're going to have those days. I'm sick and fed up of just looking to pinpoint individuals. Cricket is a team sport at the end of the day.”

The batting coach lauded Pandya for being confident, and for being “great around the group”. “In cricket, you have good days and you have bad days. I'm seeing an individual who's working bloody hard to continue his skill and to ply his trade,” he said. 

Pollard said in the case of Pandya being picked for India’s T20 World Cup campaign, everyone would be singing his praises. "This is an individual that's going to represent the country in less than six weeks’ time. We're all going to be cheering for him and want him to do well," said Pollar, an MI legend himself. 

He said that it is important to encourage and to stop nitpicking players to see if we can get the best out of one of the great all-rounders India could ever produce. 

“He can bat, he can bowl, he can field. He has an X factor about him. I hope very well deep down within my heart that when he comes out on top, I'll sit back and I'll watch everyone sing his praises,” said Pollard.

Pandya was seen struggling to bat and bowl. He had a rough time with the bat, getting two runs off six balls at a crucial juncture, and finished with 2 for 43 from his four overs with the ball. He was intermittently booed by the fans in the stadium. 

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen also spoke on the entire issue. He however, did not give Pandya a fully clean chit. Pietersen said he saw a captain who had a Plan A but did not switch to Plan B when the first option did not work out. 

"Like how on this Earth have you not bowled a spinner when your seamers are going for 20. Brian Lara said can we please bowl a spinner? Somebody needs to bowl here. You need to change the pace of the game," Pietersen said on Star Sports.

Pietersen said that “everything away from the game” is affecting Hardik Pandya too much. "He's smiling too much when he does the toss, he's trying to act like he's so happy. He's not happy. I've been there. I've been in the firing line and I've been in the firing line proper, he knows I've been in the firing line, you know, I've been in the firing line and I can tell you now, it affects you," he said. 

The former England captain said that the boos that Pandya can hear and the fact that he was being hit all over the park by Dhoni definitely must have hurt him. “He has emotions and he is an Indian player. And he doesn't want to be treated like this. So when this is happening, it's affecting him. It's affecting his cricket and something needs to happen," he said.

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was far less sympathetic to Pandya. He called the performance ordinary and that CSK should have been restricted to 180-90. “Oh, absolutely ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy. They should have been restricted despite the fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad had batted so well along with Shivam Dube. I do believe that they should have been restricted to 185-190," Gavaskar said.

After CSK scored 206/4, Gavaskar said that it was “probably the worst kind of bowling” he had seen in a long time.