Pollard justifies faith in Rohit after the latter’s return to form has seen him score consecutive half-centuries.
Pollard justifies the faith that MI has shown in backing Rohit Sharma with the latter’s blazing return to form.
Kieron Pollard is overjoyed that his assessment of Rohit Sharma’s form and ability to score runs has turned out to be accurate. With consecutive 70s in his previous two innings, both of which came in MI’s resounding victories, Rohit has completely changed the course of his season. However, the former MI captain’s situation was far from ideal at the beginning of the 2025 Indian Premier League.
In addition to scoring only 82 runs in his opening six innings, Rohit was also dealing with an ailment that kept him out of the game. Pollard was questioned about the play of MI’s most seasoned player at this point. At the time, he had stated that Rohit will recover and that a few poor scores shouldn’t be used to evaluate him.
“If my memory serves me right, at the start of this competition, that question was different. I said sitting right here, we are also going to be singing his praises as an individual,” Pollard said when asked about Rohit’s surge in form. “For us, we always had that belief that he is going to come good.
“There are dips. There is low confidence. But for someone who has played this sport for a long time, you have these moments. Sometimes you just need that extra support from people. Now we are singing his praises. We are all very happy in the Mumbai dressing room. We were happy at the start as well, knowing that it is going to happen, and long may it continue.
“The headlines are going to be about that. But for us, in our entire batting unit, we look for guys to perform at different junctures in a tournament. We are not going to individualise it.”
MI lost four of its first five games during their wild start to the season. However, they have won four straight games since then. MI has often had a poor start to the season before picking up speed. According to Pollard, it just comes down to certain teams gelling more quickly and others taking their time. Additionally, he believes MI has “found a sort of a method” that is effective for them.
“There is no ‘more important’ part in IPL,” Pollard said when asked if the second half of the season carries more weightage than the first half. “It all depends on form and confidence of the team. In the second half, you build a bit of momentum. You will tend to say now is more important. But you have 14 games in a tournament. Each and every game is important. Some teams gel faster than some or they start off pretty quickly. Some teams build the momentum and come into the back end.
“The most important thing is trying to qualify for the playoffs and get into the final and see if you can win. That is important.”