About Kieron Pollard
Kieron Pollard is one of the best cricketers West Indies have ever produced. No one will fall to the level of destruction he has in his hands. Not only that, but he is also one of the best defenders in world cricket and a great asset to the ball. To say the least, there is no international team where Pollard cannot join
Pollard Domestic Carrer
Pollard is a single mother raising her children and two younger sisters. He spent his early years in poverty. He played for the Trinidad and Tobago under-19 team in the TCL team tournament in 2005 and after some impressive performances he was called up to be part of the West Indies under-19 team that was about to tour Pakistan. He played in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
In July 2006, he was invited to play for the senior team of Trinidad and Tobago. Six months later, he made his first-class debut against Barbados. He showed his ability to fly over the fence in games where he scored 86 of his 126 runs alone. His winning performance earned him a call-up to the West Indies squad in the 2007 World Cup. Playing for Trinidad and Tobago, he showcased his boxing skills in the 2009 Champions League match against New South Wales. He smashed 5 sixes in his innings of 54 off 18 balls to help his team win.
International Carrer of Pollard
Before making his international debut in 2007, Pollard was part of the Under-19 team that toured Pakistan in 2005. He was the top scorer in the first match with 50 runs. In 2006, Pollard was selected for the team but failed to make much of an impact.
In the same year Pollard joined English County Club Haxey Cricket Club and played for T&T CC in July 2006. For the next two years, Pollard continued to captain Trinidad and Tobago which led to his selection in the ODI squad. In April, Pollard won an ODI cap against South Africa. He was on and off the team for the rest of the year. Despite that, he managed to make his place permanent in many cricket clubs. In 2007, Kieron Pollard had a brilliant summer in England.
For Stanford Superstars, Kieron bowled brilliantly and took vital wickets to help them win the final and his key wickets removed Flintoff and Luke Wright to record a historic win for the England side. Kieron Pollard made his IPL debut in 2010, thanks to his perfection in all three departments of the game in the past CLT20 in 2009. After a fierce bidding between 4 teams, Mumbai Indians won Kieron Pollard after a tiebreaker . His 45 runs off 13 balls in the first season of the IPL was enough to prove his worth, followed by a strong run against RCB, making it to the final for Mumbai Indians for the first time. He stayed with MI for the rest of the season, regularly winning heart and man of the game awards for the franchise. In 2013, Pollard’s run chasing huge totals with a few wickets in hand became an important event.
Along with Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard did it with the help of 6 sixes from seven, Pollard’s worst career. In the final match, Pollard was the next savior Mumbai Indians needed as he led Mumbai Indians to their first IPL title.
In 2015, Mumbai Indians retained Pollard for the sixth consecutive season and he rewarded them with his big shots. His bat has been hiding six sixes every time Pollard has been on duty.
He did most of the damage with the bat, long high-flying perfect sixes were always in his innings. Made a little of the ball, his ability on the field was unmatched in all competitions.
Mumbai Indians won their second IPL title, once again the architect was Pollard with his 28 sixes in the tournament. In 2016, Kieron Pollard opened the Pakistan Super League season. Bought by Karachi Kings in 2016, Karachi finished fourth in the tournament. He was retained by the club for the 2017 PSL season where he won a few matches as Karachi held on to 3rd place.
His six against Lahore Qalandars in the last delivery when 4 points were needed in the match to be won earned him the man of the match award.
IPL Carrer
In the 2010 IPL auction he was bought by Mumbai Indians, of which he remains a full member. He performed well in the first season followed by two mediocre seasons. He returned in the 2013 season with a bang and scored 420 points to help his team win their first title. In the 2014 season, Pollard smashed 78 off 48 balls while chasing Sunrisers Hyderabad but was dismissed by Irfan Pathan in the last over and Mumbai eventually won the match. In the Wankhede opener against Punjab, Pollard chipped in with a crucial 28 from 12 balls and helped Mumbai register their first win of the season. With 419 runs, Pollard was the most popular in the 2015 season which Mumbai won. Pollard hit 70 off 48 balls with 7 boundaries and 5 sixes against Rajasthan but Mumbai won the match.
He followed that up with another 64 runs off just 34 balls smashing two sixes against Chennai but once again Mumbai could not defend their tally. Chasing Delhi Daredevils, Pollard joined Rayudu and scored 26 runs* from 14 balls to secure victory. In the same week, he smashed 49 balls with 24 balls and six sixes, but Mumbai could not follow the mammoth figures of RCB. In the match to beat Kolkata, Pollard bowled a sick Hardik Pandya and helped Mumbai to 171. Yususf Patan led KKR’s chase with a brilliant half-century and the tie was 12 points needed for the final. Pollard dismissed Pathan with the ball in hand in the first ball, scored 6 in the next two balls but followed up with three balls to help Mumbai to a crucial win. Pollard did not have the best of IPL in 2019.
However, he played some important innings for his side, Mumbai Indians again. In a low-key match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai were asked to bat first and lost the top 3 in the first 10 overs. From the 17th over, Pollard started his killing spree when he hit 4 sixes and 2 fours in that over to make 46* from 26 balls and get Mumbai a defense of 136, considering their bowling. Mumbai bowled out Hyderabad for 96 runs while West Indian Bolu Alzarri Joseph took six wickets for 12 runs on his debut. In his 11th straight year playing for the Mumbai Indians in 2020, Pollard became the first player to represent the franchise in 150 games.
Major professional achievements:
- Wisden honored him as the World’s Best T20 Cricketer of 2020 in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2021.
- In March 2021, in a T20I match against Sri Lanka, Pollard became the third batsman to hit 6 sixes in international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh. Pollard became the first cricketer to appear in 500 matches and the second batsman to score more than 10,000 runs against Chris Gayle in the T20 series in March 2020.
- During the 2019/20 West Indies Tour of India, he became the fourth West Indies cricketer to score 1000 T20I runs. For his outstanding performance in the 2011–12 Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, Pollard was named player of the series.
- At the 2011 CWI/WIPA Awards, he was awarded ODI Player of the Year. He won the award for the best debut performance in the 2010 Indian Premier League.
- He was instrumental in winning the Man of the Match award for Trinidad and Tobago in the match against New South Wales in the 2009 T20 Champions League.
