Mumbai Indians have no plans to rest ace India pacer Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the T20 World Cup even though they are out of contention for the IPL playoffs, said batting coach Kieron Pollard. MI defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets here on Monday after Suryakumar Yadav (102 not out) struck his second IPL century to help his team chase down a target of 174 with 16 balls to spare. The win helped MI end their four-match losing streak and record only their fourth win in 12 matches.
“I certainly haven’t had any discussions about that,” Pollard told media after the game when asked if there are any plans to rest Bumrah from MI’s remaining two matches keeping in mind the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“I don’t think that’s my role and function at this point in time. But let’s see what happens. We are all here to play an entire IPL. Sometimes when we think too far ahead of different things, thinking about World Cups, all these things could affect performances even from before the team was selected.
“For us and in our camp, the most important thing is finishing off the IPL and let’s see what happens after that. When he leaves the IPL and he goes into the Indian team, I think that’s where that concession will take place.” MI’s last IPL game is against Lucknow Super Giants at home on May 17. The T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by USA and the West Indies, will begin on June 1.
Pollard said as a batting coach the most difficult aspect of coaching an all-round batter like Suryakumar is to curb his attacking instinct.
“He’s one, who, by nature, instinctively, is very aggressive. He wants to take the bowler’s on more often than not. At times it’s just a matter of understanding the situation and respecting the new ball when it’s moving around,” Pollard said.
“If the conditions are not suitable for a certain amount of shot making, having that discipline in order to be there for a period of time and they’ll get into your work.
“I think that would be the hardest thing — to try to curb the attacking instinct. But it’s not something you want to curb too much and get them in a defensive frame of mind because of the direction the sport is heading now in terms of the amount of runs being scored.”
SRH’s assistant coach Helmot doffs his hat to Suryakumar
SRH’s assistant coach Simon Helmot said Suryakumar played an exceptional innings to take the game away from his side and the world No 1 T20I batter will have a lot of influence in the T20 World Cup.
“On some days you just have to take your hat off and say well played and well played to him. He’s an exceptional cricketer and he’s always going to demand a spot in the Indian team and I’m sure he’ll have an influence in the World Cup,” he said.
“It’s very difficult (to bowl at Suryakumar) and you guys have seen him close up for many years as I have. He’s a very difficult batsman to match up with when he’s in that sort of frame of mind, that sort of mood.” Helmot said the conditions assisted swing bowling with the new ball in both the innings which forced the batters to adjust their game.
“Travis (Head) has been one of our best players this season at the top of the order. But even he found it difficult at times to time the ball out in the middle on this particular track and that will happen at different times during the season,” he said.
Helmot said not losing their fourth spot in the IPL points table was the biggest positive for SRH in a resounding defeat.
“The positives are that we’re still fourth in the ladder. It’s a really tight competition; one of the tightest competitions we’ve had in IPL for years that I can remember,” he said.
“For us, we’ve got our very first fly tomorrow (Tuesday) and then play the next day against Lucknow (on Wednesday). For us, it’s (about) very quickly get through over this game,” he added.
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