Cricket
Pollard Commands Huge Respect in Mumbai Indians’ Dressing Room: Head Coach Boucher
Mumbai Indians head coach discusses Kieron Pollard's role in the team's dressing room and expresses confidence in Piyush Chawla as their lead spinner.
Mumbai Indians (MI) are one of the most successful T20 franchises. Owned by Reliance Industries Limited, they have won five IPL and two - now defunct - Champions League titles. The Mumbai-based franchise has expanded its presence to various parts of the world. The franchise owns MI Cape Town in SA20 in South Africa, MI Emirates in International League T20 (ILT20) in the UAE, and MI New York in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA.
Image Courtesy: X (Mumbai Indians)
After securing consecutive IPL titles in 2019 and 2020, the Mumbai Indians faced a downturn, ending 5th out of 8 in 2021 and 10th out of 10 in 2022 IPL. It marked the franchise's lowest point in the history of IPL. Subsequently, Mahela Jayawardene, the head coach since 2017 with 3 trophies to his name, was promoted to the global head of performance, while former South African wicket-keeper-batter Mark Boucher was named the head coach.
In an exclusive interview with SportsBoom.com, the former South African head coach and cricket legend discusses his experience from the last season and his vision for the team.
“I think anytime you join Mumbai Indians, there's a lot of expectation and the expectation is to win at all times. We have won the championship quite a few times. Once the owners and the fans get a sniff of that, then they want to do it every time.”
Mark Boucher on the pressure of coaching Mumbai Indians
Injuries in the bowling unit posed concern in the last IPL season
Reflecting on the last season with Mumbai Indians, Boucher emphasises the team’s high expectations for success. I think anytime you join Mumbai Indians, there's a lot of expectation and the expectation is to win at all times. We have won the championship quite a few times. Once the owners and the fans get a sniff of that, then they want to do it every time.
While recognising the unpredictability of sports and the challenges encountered, he particularly praises the team's batting display, highlighting a positive style of cricket. Boucher acknowledges the challenges he faced in the bowling unit as a result of injuries. Although they finished third, falling short of the intended win, he views it as a commendable effort given the situation.
Our bowling was a little bit shy, as I said, because of the injuries that we picked up. The third position is not what we wanted. We wanted to win, but third was not a bad effort, judging from what we had to go through last season. But a catch maybe taken here or there could have put ourselves into a final and then who knows what happens in the final, explained Boucher.
Image Courtesy: X (Mumbai Indians)
Boucher did not have extensive coaching experience in the T20 franchise circuit, but he was not a novice in the IPL setup. He played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL for four seasons and also served as the wicketkeeping coach at Kolkata Knight Riders in 2016. Prior to his role as head coach of the South African men's national team, he was in charge at Titans in the South African domestic circuit.
“Polly is a strong person and a lot of the players trust him and look up to him. Whenever Polly opens his mouth in the dressing room, people listen. Not because he is going to hold him up against the side of the wall, but because they know what he's done.”
Mark Boucher on Mumbai Indians' Batting Coach Pollard
Kieron Pollard commands huge respect in Mumbai Indians
One of the notable aspects of every IPL team is the large support staff. Boucher, the head coach of Mumbai Indians, emphasizes the positive atmosphere and learning experience within the team. He commends the support staff, particularly the former Mumbai Indians player and current batting coach Kieron Pollard.
Image Courtesy: X (Mumbai Indians)
Polly (Pollard) is fantastic. He's got so much character in the change room. Polly is a strong person and a lot of the players trust him and look up to him. Whenever Polly opens his mouth in the dressing room, people listen. Not because he is going to hold him up against the side of the wall, but because they know what he's done.
Having him in the dressing room has a calming effect on the batting. You have a look at our stats in the batting, the aggressive nature we went about things, the calmness in the dugouts, all that type of stuff. I think a lot of that can be attributed to Polly as well because of his way that he is and his whole demeanour and understanding that he's got. He's still playing in franchises around the world he's in the know about who's playing good crickets and we feed off that, said Boucher.
“We do believe in the spinners that we have in the side already. Piyush had a fantastic season last time around. No one really thought that he would probably have that kind of impact that he had. We are backing him to do something similar.”
Mark Boucher reposes belief in Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla will lead our spin attack
Leveraging the influence of players like Kieron Pollard undoubtedly played a role in the 2024 IPL auction for Mumbai Indians. The team exhibited a single-minded focus on strengthening their bowling unit. Acquiring three established fast bowlers - Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Nuwan Thushara - to complement Jasprit Bumrah and Jason Behrendorff was a strategic move.
Image Courtesy: X (mufaddal_vohra)
Mumbai Indians bought Shreyas Gopal and Mohammad Nabi as their new spin bowlers. Boucher explains the rationale behind the decision of not buying high-profile spinners in the auction. We do believe in the spinners that we do have in the side already. Piyush had a fantastic season last time around. No one really thought that he would probably have that kind of impact that he had. We are backing him to do something similar.
In our home games at Wankhede spin doesn't play a major part in the game. So our side is very much sort of geared towards our home conditions, but we do feel that we've got enough cover if we do go into a different venue and the ball is turning and gripping, we do feel that we do have the guys to sort of consolidate those conditions, explained Boucher.
We have got Kumar Kartikeya, who is a very good spinner in his own right and getting better with the experience. Shams Mulani has done fantastic work in the domestic scenes and he hasn't really been given a chance at IPL as of yet. Hopefully, we can put him into a situation where we throw him into a game here or there and we know exactly what he can do, said Boucher.
Under the new captaincy and with fresh talent in the bowling department, Mumbai Indians, led by Mark Boucher and Hardik Pandya, are determined in their pursuit to replicate their past successes.
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Dillip has over two decades of experience in creating sports content. As the Sports Editor of SportsBoom, Dillip brings in a wealth of experience and expertise to the role. Dillip has worked with leading sports broadcasters and sports web content portals in Asia. He is an adept storyteller and has a special liking for data stories. He has a keen interest in data analysis and uncovering insights from large datasets. He loves to tell the story with rich and compelling data visualisation.