He didn’t play the 2015 Cricket World Cup. He was branded a freelancing T20 cricketer.
He wasn’t given the chance to party with Sammy’s World T20, 2016–winning boys, a gang made of champion cricketers.
As if there weren’t any miseries in his West Indian career already, he was overlooked for the 2019 World Cup as well.
For nearly past half a decade in an otherwise promising career, it seemed one of West Indies’ most talented sons had been residing away, miles from home, unsure of whether his own homeland would ever consider him as one of its own.
Call it a cold exodus of sorts.
No one said in his relation, remember the name, Kieron Pollard.
Yet, 3 T20 matches against India, 1 abysmal whitewash afterward, Kieron Pollard’s the only name you remember in a batting scorecard that has nothing remotely substantial other than the big man’s numbers.
Make no mistake.
Pollard didn’t hit 10 sixes in a single match. He didn’t fire 3 consecutively. Nor did he score a T20 hundred in the games at Florida and Guyana.
But with the meaningful, nearly career-saving 49 off 49 balls and the 58 in the final T20 in the Caribbean, it seems a sleeping giant has awoken in Kieron Pollard- lanky, muscular, talented, and at 32, out to prove himself with reasonably strong evidence that he’s still of strong utility to his West Indies.
Scoring 1 shy of what would’ve been a well-deserved fifty, Pollard often eschewed the lust to indulge in typical thunderous strokeplay, opting to run for singles, finding that odd boundary as he collected 49 runs in what could be described a career-resuscitating knock for the West Indies.
Who knows, the desire to chuck concentration in the lust to attempt a big hit would’ve even ended his valuable outing prematurely, robbing his team of the 95, that they were to eventually get?
With the 2nd T20 ending midway thanks to inclement weather, the final T20 brought out the aggressive hulk in one of the shortest format’s most entertaining cricketers ever.
By the time Pollard- in when his team were 13-2- departed, his team had made 105. Yet, importantly, the right-hander had contributed 58 of those.
Talk of the significance a solitary man can bring to a T20 and you find Pollard as an example of commitment.
Of his fluent half-century, only the second of his T20 career, 5 of his 6 sixes were purely beautifully timed strokes.
They had the quintessential Pollard power but before anything, bore grace. And flawless timing. Not necessarily the average West Indian’s area of strength, right?
They were smashed but didn’t bear the risk of brute power going wrong.
There were no false shots. Chahar was picked over deep mid-wicket. Sundar was sent packing down the ground.
There were no relentless exhibitions of a man seeking vengeance. They were indications of a man backing himself to come good.
Something you’ve had also expected the likes of Lewis, Pooran, and Hetmyer to do.
Something the three collectively failed at.
But Pollard is here to stay. To grow. To contribute. To score. To score lots and lots of runs. Unless the old wreckless hitter kicks in.
Keep him out, Polly!
You’re looking good.
