Making Sense Of Kieron Pollard's Long, Entertaining Career

After only a quarter of a year of winning their maiden T20 World cup title, circa 2013, the West Indies were in Australia for a comprehensive white-ball series. They looked a far more confident white-ball side than they'd seemed in a long time.

More importantly, the side still featured Sarwan. Chris Gayle, then 33, was at the peak of his powers. An important quartet, namely- Roach, Bravo, Sammy, and Narine- were 25, 29, 29 and 24, respectively.

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You had little doubt that they'd hold on to their own against an Australian line-up that comprised names like Starc, Watson, Finch, Johnson, and Faulkner.

But the series began on a sombre note for the visitors. At the Perth-bound 1st ODI, the West Indies were 70 all out. In the next game, they went down by 54 runs, before losing by 39 runs again in the third game at Canberra.

The saga, whether at Western Australia or the national capital, was about belligerent hammering.

Not that it changed in the fourth ODI, which Australia won by 5 wickets, but something spectacular came about when perhaps none expected it.

For fans so used to witnessing familiar batting collapses, it may not have looked any surprising that batting first, the West Indies found themselves at 22 for 4 inside 11 overs; their run rate- not even 2.

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But what was surprising and heartening in equal measure is that a young batsman by the name of Kieron Pollard came to the party when it seemed the music had been switched off and the visitors were exiting the event.

For someone who had little experience of repairing a broken inning, Pollard was, at best, a demonstration of carnage.

He occupied the crease for 136 deliveries, batted until the final delivery of his team's inning, and importantly emerged unbeaten.

For a team that had lost half the side for 45, Pollard single-handedly carried the team, scoring 109 of its 220 runs and amid a 48000-strong Sydney gathering, became the toast of the cricket-obsessed Australian public.

Cut to 2022

64 ODIs after that valiant effort in Australia, Kieron Pollard strolled down the Kingston Jamaica pitch in the first of the three ODIs.

At 62 for 4, his team was once again in a spot of bother. The run rate, barely over 3, was going nowhere. Rather embarrassingly, the West Indies were being teased by Ireland on this occasion.

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That's when the Trinidadian got going with debutant Brooks seeming in fine touch at the other end.

The duo would take the side to a net of safety, stitching a 155-run stand, of which Pollard would alone account for 69 runs.

In so doing, Pollard clobbered three consecutive sixes off Andie McBrine in the 37th over and just when it seemed the going was to get tougher, he managed to eclipse trouble to find adulation.

The 269 he helped his West Indies accumulate would prove to be a task for Ireland and would, in the end, turn out to be the only contest the hosts won.

But stitching critical stands and holding centrestage in an act of revival was nothing new to Kieron Pollard; he did that time and again in a fifteen year career.

Even in 2019's final ODI versus India, Pollard strolled down the Cuttack wicket with Windies at 144 for 4 and took just 51 deliveries and some sensational hitting in those to strike 74 of his team's 315 runs.

What was drastic, if not new, however, were the litany of woes Kieron Pollard couldn't keep in check despite all that muscle and firepower.

For instance, he was captain this January when the West Indies arguably suffered their worst ignominy in ODI history of being defeated by Ireland at home in the Caribbean.

Just last year, during his team's T20 world cup campaign opener against England, he saw the despairing sight of West Indies, two time world champions, being 55 all out at Dubai.

His own contribution of 6 (14) didn't help much.

Moreover, in 2020, he led his team against Sri Lanka, a side none would consider almighties of the game, a unit that, over the years, has shrunken significantly in the size of fight and capability.

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But even on that tour the West Indies were routed 3-nil by a side that didn't feature the familiar gravitas of past matchwinners like Dilshan and Malinga. Moreover, Pollard's own contributions included a first ball duck and a banal 9.

To make some sense of what has been a long and exasperating career, it would seem essential to separate Pollard's impact from the calamity that struck Windies cricket in the past decade.

On his own, he could and did, change the context of many a white-ball game almost alone, powered hits, often effortlessly involving no more than the minor twitch of a muscle. He continued to throw himself in the direction of the delivery anywhere in the outfield. If you had Pollard patrolling the fine leg boundary, deep cover or the long-on region, you couldn't risk hitting airy strokes.

Few have been better fielders of their own bowling whilst actually bowling no more than fast medium at harmless pace.

But it were Pollard's inconsistencies and a lack of cohesive impact therewith that ultimately stymied what could- and should ideally have- been a heroic career.

If you've been given no fewer than 123 ODI chances to make a mark and yet manage to conjure a little above 2,700 runs, then have you actually played to full potential?

What emerge as unquestionable standouts in Pollard's career that began, would you believe it, in 2007- are facets like his strike rate.

You deserve to play in packed stadia anywhere in the world and fancy placards celebrating your name if your strike rate reads 94 even after fifteen strenuous years.

Pollard deserves every bit of our appreciation for playing aggressively and free-spiritedly for a decade and a half.

He never changed his style. Went down the wicket to fast bowlers and upset their rhythm. On days where he wasn't a hundred percent with the bat, took his own time to get his eye in and backed himself to discard bowlers depending on familiar power and punches.

But where his long sojourn puts up with a discomforting feature is that Pollard didn't quite emerge as a genuine matchwinner wearing the West Indian maroon.

Where were the Gayle-like outbursts, you often wondered, that could've lifted their cricket into being something else altogether?

Especially from the onset of 2017, he seemed more Mumbai Indian, than West Indian.

If for anything, perhaps the fact that he played in countless T20 leagues, T10 even around the world only added to the pressure of performing for the country as both- captain and batter.

It's the perfect Catch-22, where you do emerge as the poster-boy of that format of the game that's well and truly in with the times but a lack of success as captain, especially away from home, don't quite paint the picture rosy.

But who'd you blame it on?

Why couldn't Pollard replicate his huge successes for Mumbai Indians for the West Indians is something one would love to get an answer despite knowing one just won't.

A fiery strike rate of 135 in T20 internationals hugely attracts. But that he managed just six fifties from 101 opportunities with the bat doesn't quite; Gayle and Samuels have struck more half centuries with considerably fewer T20I appearances against their name.

For all that he epitomized and lest it is forgotten that he presented, a postcard of carnage for bowlers, Pollard ends collecting a lot lesser than he could have, unless you are clearly mistaken and have misread him.

And if you have misread him, then what would you say: that perhaps you were expecting much from someone who at nearly six and a half feet with the physicality of a cricketing giant was destined to underachieve?

The author is a freelance sports contributor. The opinions expressed in the article are author's own.

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