IPL: Kieron Pollard Can Make Any Opposition Jittery, Feels Robin Singh

Kieron Pollard is valuable to any T20 side as he has the ability to make any opposition jittery with his big-hitting prowess, according to Mumbai Indians assistant coach Robin Singh.

The big-bodied Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder hit six sixes in his 17-ball 51* to win a tricky match for Mumbai Indians against KKR with ease.

"What is really important that when you have someone like Pollard coming in at the backend and you have Jos Buttler just ahead of him, oppositions are never safe with any sort of score on the board. As you saw it's just the question of one over in the game which changes the course of the game, people like Pollard actually you need to have in any team," Robin, one among the innumerable number of support staff in defending champions dug-out told mediapersons after the match.

"His (Pollard's) game has matured over the years (and) in the last season he played similar knocks like this right compared to initially when he came in. He can take the game right down till the end and he has understood the responsibility not just as somebody who can just strike the ball but actually somebody who is critical to the side. More importantly, it is sending jitters to the opposition."

Robin also said that Pollard has worked hard on rehab programme to get fit in time for the IPL.

"I think he is ok, may be his injury is just getting over. In a situation where he has come back to play much earlier than what we expected, he has done a lot of rehab, we are pretty satisfied even the trainers are satisfied with his fitness."

Robin indicated that the strategy was to target former ICL player Rajagopal Sathish, who was the weakest link in the KKR attack rather than going for the seasoned Sunil Narine, who has more variations.

The assistant coach also felt that skipper Rohit Sharma is doing the job of anchoring the innings to perfection.

"No, he (Rohit) is been pretty successful in Indian cricket. If you talk about Test cricket, that is a different ball game but in the shorter formats he is probably one of the top batters, if, after Virat Kohli, his game suits this format more than anybody else, he has got fantastic range of strokes, with our team (MI) there are lot of guys who come down the order, we have a long batting line up (and) so he is able to play his game freely," he added.