IPL 2022: Did the Mumbai Indians Make a Mistake by Retaining Kieron Pollard?

IPL 2022: India is 2-0 up against the West Indies in the three-match ODI series. The Men in Blue won the second ODI match by 44 runs. The West Indies batters again struggled against the Indian bowling. On the other hand, their regular skipper, Kieron Pollard, missed the second ODI due to a niggle. And Nicholas Pooran took charge in his place. West Indies cricket tweeted, 

However, the fitness of Kieron Pollard is becoming an issue for the West Indies and might become one for the Mumbai Indies as well. Pollard has been facing the fitness issue for quite a while now. The skipper earlier missed the complete series against Pakistan. He was also out of a T20I match in the middle of the T20I World Cup. Looking for today’s IPL cricket match prediction from betting experts? Read more here.

Did the Mumbai Indians make a mistake by retaining Kieron Pollard?

Here’s the complete IPL team list for the 2022 season.

IPL 2022: Five-time IPL winner Mumbai Indians have retained Rohit Sharma along with Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, and Suryakumar Yadav. The skipper, Rohit Sharma, was retained for INR 16 crore, while star bowler Bumrah was their second pick for INR 12 crore. Suryakumar Yadav and Pollard were the other two retained picks, for INR 8 crore and 6 crores, respectively.

But the concern might be about the fitness issue with Kieron Pollard. The veteran T20I all-rounder joined the Mumbai Indians back in 2010. Since then, he has been a regular member of the team. In a few matches, Pollard has also captained the side in the absence of Rohit Sharma.

The 35-year-old has not been at his best in recent times and has also missed a few games due to injuries. So it will be a valid concern for MI management whether the decision to retain Pollard ahead of the auction was the right choice or not.

IPL 2022: Is retaining Pollard the right decision or not?

• Hopefully, we will see the West Indies skipper back in action in the next match. But in recent times, there have been few injury issues for the big West Indian. Pollard has already missed the last tour of Pakistan due to injury. He was supposed to lead the team, but at the last moment, was unable to do so. 
  
• On the other hand, he wasn’t fully fit in a match against Bangladesh in the T20I World Cup and went off the field. 
• Before the five-match T20I series against England, the captain had done rehabilitation work in Trinidad.
  
• The 35-year-old is vastly experienced in the shortest format of the game. He has played a total of 578 T20s. He is the only player with 11000+ runs and 300+ wickets in T20s.
  
• Pollard was retained by the Mumbai Indians for an amount of INR 6 crore. And the MI fans will be hoping that he can contribute to their team for the entire season.

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