Kieron Pollard needs to reinvent his game: Ian Bishop

Kieron Pollard, who recently retired from international cricket has had a poor Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, in which he has scored just 144 runs at 14.40. Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop remains hopeful that the 35-year-old still has a future ahead of him if he reinvents himself.

Pollard, who has won the IPL title with Mumbai Indians (MI) on multiple occasions has scores of 15, 4, 10, 19 and 14 in his last five innings.

“Pollard himself has to reinvent his game, however, he chooses to do that, because he’s still got a future ahead of him we hope. People are saying he’s washed, I’m not going to go there. I think he’s a player who can reinvent himself,” Bishop told ESPNCricinfo.

“Yeah, they (Mumbai Indians) are keeping faith and being loyal to a great player for them. We have to have long memories – when I say we, in the media; fans, some fans anyway, have short memories.

“You look at Pollard’s numbers when Mumbai have won the championships: 400 runs [420] in 2013 at [an average of] 42, up to 2019 and 2020, where he averaged over 30 with a strike rate sometimes in the 160s to 190s [156.74 in 2019, 191.42 in 2020] – he’s been integral to them. 

"You can’t forget that as a franchise, so they’re giving him every possible chance,” he added.

MI are currently right at the foot of the IPL 2022 points table having collected just four points from 11 matches so far. They take on rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK) later today (May 12) at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.