Kieron Pollard has been a matchwinner for Mumbai Indian ever since joining the side in IPL 2010. He played just one season with Dwayne Bravo who played from 2008 to 2010 with the five-time champions. In an interesting revelation, he said how he convinced the franchise owners, he said how he convinced the management to sign up Pollard as his replacement.
Initially, MI signed another WI all-rounder Dwayne Smith, but Pollard, who was making waves in the West Indies domestic circuit was on everyone’s radar. At the 2010 IPL auction, MI, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders came up with some aggressive bidding to acquire Pollard with Mumbai finally winning the bid.
“When Mumbai Indians needed a replacement for me, I gave them Kieron Pollard’s name. When they tried contacting him, he was playing for a club, so I recommended Dwayne Smith and he became my replacement,” Bravo had told Cricbuzz.
Since joining the MI squad in 2010, Kieron Pollard went onto become one of the biggest matchwinners in the IPL. Since joining the side , Pollard has been a part of five-IPL titles and played a key role in almost all of them.
Dwayne Bravo Reveals How Kieron Pollard Joined Mumbai Indians
Thank you, agent @DJBravo47! 💙#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians @KieronPollard55 pic.twitter.com/yFXQjkUVJg
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 12, 2021
The all-rounder has been with the franchise since the last decade and has scored 3191 runs from 171 matches with 16 half-centuries. One of his best knocks came in the IPL 2021 edition when Pollard scored 87* off just 34 balls to help Mumbai chase down a score of 219 to win. He took 2/12 with the ball before his batting masterclass in Delhi.
It was in the Champions League edition that Rahul Sanghvi and Robin Singh saw Pollard first. He made headlines by hitting some big sixes in the tournament.
“It so happened in that same tournament, Pollard was unbelievable. The entire world stood on their feet and applauded him. Everyone wanted to know who’s this kid. When a shout came around that Mumbai already signed him, it was forced to go into the mini-auction. IPL had put up a clause that no franchise can pay more than 750,000 USD to get him and eventually Mumbai won the bid. You cannot see Mumbai Indians without Pollard today” Bravo concluded.
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