Kieron Pollard, Mumbai Indians’ batting coach, said skipper Hardik Pandya batting at No. 7 on Sunday was a “collective decision”, as the five-time champions’ inexplicable batting strategy saw them lose their opener by six runs after they looked on course for victory.
Mumbai won the toss and opted to bowl first and surprisingly, Hardik opened the bowling, instead of Jasprit Bumrah, against Gujarat Titans. Pollard also backed this move.
“You have to plan and decide what you want to do as a team. Hardik has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat over the last couple of years. He swung the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new to us.
“When I look at the decision made, there is nothing wrong with it, and we move on,” Pollard said at the post-match press conference.
When the discussion turned to Hardik coming to bat after Tim David, Pollard said one can’t attribute the decision to the skipper.
“No decision is made on full autonomy, so we can’t say it is his decision. The top order batted deep into the game, and we also had two power hitters to go in the back end.
“Usually, if you look at it over time, Tim has finished games for us, and Hardik has done it over the years.
“So, at any point, any one of them can resurrect the situation... But all of those things are in hindsight, and as a team, we make decisions, so let’s put a stop to ‘Hardik made a decision, Hardik did this’. We are a team.”
