Former Indian batter Aakash Chopra feels that the Mumbai Indians (MI) will not retain West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season.
35-year-old Pollard, who recently announced his international retirement, had a horror run with the bat. He played 11 IPL 2022 matches in which he scored a mere 144 runs at an average of 14.40 and a strike rate of 107.46.
The writing was on the wall for the Windies white-ball legend as he was dropped from playing XI for the last few matches of the season.
Pollard’s poor run coincided with MI’s worst-ever performance in the IPL as they finished last in the 10-team competition, winning only four of their 14 matches. Looking ahead to next season, Chopra picked out some names he felt Mumbai should release. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he said:
“I think we have seen the last of Kieron Pollard. ₹6 crore will be released if they don’t retain him. I think they can let Murugan Ashwin (₹1.6 crore) go as well. I am not sure about Jaydev Unadkat (₹1.3 crore) but they can definitely say bye bye to Tymal Mills (₹1.5 crore).”
Pollard is the second-highest run scorer for MI after captain Rohit Sharma. Having made his debut back in IPL 2010, Pollard has been part of MI’s all five title-winning franchises.
He has scored 3412 runs for the franchise with 16 half-centuries with a best of an unbeaten 87 against Delhi Capitals last season.