Kieron Pollard played a gem of innings against Kings XI Punjab on his Indian Premier League captaincy debut on Wednesday night at Wankhede Stadium. Rohit Sharma was rested due to keeping the workload management in mind and Pollard grabbed this opportunity with both hands and took Mumbai to a memorable win by three wickets.

Mumbai was reeling at the halfway mark but Pollard didn’t lose hope and scored a breathtaking 31-ball 83 runs, where he hit three fours and ten sixes. This innings filled Pollard with a lot of optimism as he is hoping for an international comeback before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England.

Also Read: Pollard took Mumbai to an impossible win against KXIP

Cricket West Indies has gone through a change of management and the new recruits sounded very positive for Pollard-like players, who were axed from the national team due to playing in the T20 league around the globe.

“Yeah, of course, you can say that. We have a new chairman of selectors, there’s a new president of the cricket board (Ricky Skerritt replacing Dave Cameron as Cricket West Indies president), and as I said you take it as it comes. Last year, you might not have been asking me that question,” Pollard quoted during the post-match press conference.

Former CWI president Dave Cameron’s controversial rules made it difficult for players like Pollard, Bravo, and Narine to play for the country regularly keeping in mind their T20 commitments. Ricky Skerritt replaced him at the helm and he gave positive signs for these players’ selection for the upcoming World Cup.

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Pollard further said “I am a cricketer. I am 31 and have a lot of cricket left in me. I had people close to me backing me. 2018 is gone. When you are losing people have lots of opinions. I am enjoying my cricket once again. Yes, I scored runs tonight so all sorts of questions will come but for me, it’s just about enjoying cricket and doing my best with my God-given talent.”

“Every time I get the opportunity to play, I want to do my best. There has been a lot of turmoil in West Indies cricket over the last couple of years. We have seen in the last couple of weeks there’s a change.”

Before concluding, he added “Pollard was one of the guys blacklisted. The most I can do every time I step on the cricket field is try to put runs on the board. There are people there who have the job to select and whatever and let’s see how that goes. As I said, I’m 31 years, Chris Gayle is still playing, he’s 39, and he’s whacking it all around.”