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IPL 2018, MIvSRH - 'I'll have to take a call on Kieron Pollard': Coach Mahela Jayawardene

Jayawardene weighs in on the West Indian's poor form this season.

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Mumbai Indians (MI) coach Mahela Jayawardene said he will soon have to take a call on West Indian Kieron Pollard's inclusion in the playing XI after his team slumped to a stunning defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Tuesday.

"Yes, Kieron has been struggling. But we trust him within the system. You've got to trust your players. You can't keep chopping and changing just because one doesn't fire. You've got to keep the structure (of the team)," Jayawardene said after the match. 

"Yes, eventually, as a coach, I'll have to take a call. But it's too early right now. I need at least 24 hours to reflect on what happened today. I can't be too emotional about it," added the Sri Lankan legend.

 

Mumbai suffered their fifth defeat of IPL 2018 after being bowled out for 87 chasing 119 at the Wankhede Stadium. Jayawardene revealed he was surprised by the wicket on Tuesday.

"I was a little surprised by the slowness of the wicket. It was a fresh wicket, it wasn't used before. It wasn't ideal for us as a home team," he said."But I'm not blaming that. We need to play the conditions. We saw how the wicket behaved when they batted. We also knew that due was going to come in the back end of the game. So we could've been much smarter in our approach. I'm not giving any excuses. Sometimes you need to take on challenges and adapt to them. And it's disappointing that we didn't do that today."

 

Jayawardene also wasn't pleased with the way his players tackled Rashid Khan. The Afghanistani leg-spinner bagged the Man of the Match award for his spell of two for 11 from four overs.

"If we had a decent wicket today, the usual Wankhede wicket, we probably would've attacked him. With the pace at which he bowls, we knew the ball was going to grip. So we didn't have to take any risk against him," he said.

"If it was a different situation, we would've definitely attacked him. Like other teams have taken him down in the last few games. But obviously you have to play according to the situation. We didn't have to take chances against their main bowlers. We just had to knock it around and maybe attack a couple of bowlers. Obviously they weren't full strength today, there was no Bhuvi (Bhuvneswar Kumar) or Billy Stanlake. They had a young attack which we could've easily taken advantage of. Thinking wise we were very poor today."

 

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