The tint of drama was added to the season’s second ‘El Clasico’ as one of the rivalry’s formidable players Kieron Pollard was dropped from the Mumbai Indians’ eleven when they took on the Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
Although the move wasn’t surprising given Pollard’s poor form this season, this was still a big call from the five-time champions to drop one of their greatest ever cricketers, that too on his 35th birthday, and given how massive Pollard has been in games vs CSK over the years.
Pollard, who has been with MI since 2010, has played a crucial, significant role in all of their five title wins. But he’s been largely struggling this season with scoring only 144 runs in 11 matches this tournament at a poor strike rate of 107 with a best knock of 22*.
Against CSK, Kieron Pollard was replaced by uncapped South African batter Tristan Stubbs, who had come into the squad replacing the injured Tymal Mills.
MI captain Rohit Sharma reasoned that the management wanted to try out new players with the future in mind and hence decided to drop the big West Indian. Rohit even went on to reveal that it was Pollard to went to him and the management and readily accepted this decision. This allowed them to try out Tristan Stubbs and see what the youngster has to offer to them.
