West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard may be regarded as one of the world’s most impactful white-ball cricketers, but for former New Zealand pacer Danny Morrison he is an “overrated player”.
Morrison’s shocking comment came during an interaction with Sportskeeda. In a video interview, when asked to name who he believes is an overrated cricketer, Morrison said “I am gonna go with Kieron Pollard”, a statement that would certainly not go down well with Pollard’s large fanbase across the world.
The cricketer has been outstanding in T20 cricket over the years, with his Indian Premier League exploits being the most exceptional. Pollard has been part of all of Mumbai Indians’ five title-winning campaigns and is also involved in their leadership group.
In his IPL career, he has made 3,268 runs at a strike-rate of 149.77 and has picked up 65 wickets at 8.58 runs an over. Pollard was one of MI’s few positives in the recently concluded 2021 campaign, where the defending champions failed to reach playoffs. He scored his runs at a strike-rate of 148.48 and gave away only 7.21 runs an over with the ball.
In his overall T20 career, the 34-year-old boasts of a jaw-dropping 11,326 runs at an average of 31.46 and strike-rate of 152.10, along with 300 wickets at 24.82 per piece with an economy rate of 8.22 with his gentle but very effective medium fast bowling.
What might have led Morrison to make his comment is an indifferent 2021 T20 World Cup, where the Windies skipper managed only 90 runs from his five innings of the Super 12 stage at a strike-rate of 107.14. Pollard’s struggles were one major reason why West Indies crashed out of the tournament with just one win. But still, to suggest he is overrated was quite a shocker from Morrison.
Pollard is currently out of the scene with an injury that he picked up towards the end of his team’s T20 World Cup campaign. The allrounder won’t be part of the limited-overs tour to Pakistan, starting December 13.
