Five years after he announced his arrival on the world stage with a bang, thanks to his robust hitting for Trinidad and Tobago during the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, Kieron Pollard returns to his favourite tournament in a new avatar.

One of the main pillars of the Mumbai Indians’ ship, Pollard, ‘KP’ as he is fondly known to the MI family, will lead the side for a CLT20. As the Mumbai Indians start their quest of defending the title, hours before he becomes the seventh Mumbai Indians captain, in a freewheeling chat with mumbaiindians.com, Pollard opens up on what leading the Mumbai Indians means to him and the preparations of his team going into a CLT20.

Excerpts

What does leading the Mumbai Indians mean to you personally?

Obviously, personally it’s an honour. It’s an achievement and I wouldn’t have thought that this opportunity would come my way. My goal was always just play the IPL and the Champions League and be a mainstay of the team. It’s a challenge and it has come, so I am looking forward to that challenge.

Obviously you haven’t taken over in ideal circumstances. Are two days enough to get you settled into the new role before MI’s first CLT20 match?

Of course. It’s a new tournament. It’s unfortunate that obviously Rohit can’t be here. He is our leader. He has done well for us. He is an integral part of our batting unit. So it’s unfortunate in that aspect. At the end of the day, these things happen in cricket and you have to move on from that. For me, a couple of days it’s just a matter. The guys have been preparing well. My job basically starts when the actual cricket starts. There are enough personnel here to deal with all the off the field matters and all those sort of stuff. For me, it’s pretty simple. I still have my game to concentrate on. I still have to try to contribute with the bat. And as I said, when leadership time comes, that will take care of itself.

What will be missed more: Rohit the captain or Rohit the batsman?

Rohit, the both. He has done good for us as a leader and as I said, he has done great for us as a batsman as well. He’s gonna be missed. There’s no doubt about that. At the end of the day, as I said, in sports we play and injuries happen and we have to move on from it. We already know the circumstances so it’s a matter of planning now and trying to actually accommodate the best combination to win that first game against Lahore Lions.

How would you sum up MI’s IPL campaign?

I think obviously it’s clear for everyone to see. We started badly in Dubai. It didn’t go as per plan. But these things happen. I think we rallied, we stuck together as a team and we were lucky enough to finish fourth in the end. After those first five games, we were actually written off in the tournament, so to actually end up fourth, that was an achievement in itself. You have to take positives from that. I think we played as well as a team at the back end of the tournament. Hopefully we can turn it around in this tournament and try and start well.

And were you happy with the way you fared during the IPL?

Yeah, you always strive for improvement. I wish I could have been more consistent. Yes, I scored some runs, average was there. But these things happen. For me, it’s about contributing when it’s necessary. If I didn’t do that at that point of time, so be it. That’s gone. No point harping on what has gone. You have got Champions League to come and there is a lot of cricket to be played.

You showed your captaincy skills by leading the Tridents to the CPL title. Would you say you are a natural leader?

No. You consider it as beginner’s luck and hopefully it can continue into this tournament. For me, it’s about trying to do the right things. Trying to, as I said, lead from the front. Trying to show positive attitude in everything that you do. You don’t want to go about saying you’re born this or born that. It’s about staying humble and actually getting the job done. Then you pass some hand and getting the people to fire.

How have MI prepared for CLT20?

We have had a couple of camps. We had a camp in August for five days and then we had a camp in Bangalore just before we all gathered here in Raipur. I think we have been preparing well. The international guys have been playing cricket. And the guys who haven’t been playing cricket came to the camp to prepare themselves. I think we are fully well prepared and looking forward to the challenge at hand.

Can you give us an insight into the balance of the squad?

It’s pretty much seven guys less from the IPL squad. In Champions League, it’s a 15-man squad. We have a mixture of spin and pace, of young and experience. I think we have a balanced team. It’s a matter of picking the right eleven and the guys actually performing on the cricket field. You can talk about balance. You can talk about what we have or don’t have but it doesn’t come for anything if you don’t go out on the cricket field and perform.

What should the Paltan expect from the Mumbai Indians going into the CLT20?

The same as always. Trying to play that aggressive, winning brand of cricket. Trying to show that we are a team, trying to show that we are a family. At the end of the day, they want you to do those things. If you do the basics well, the results take care of itself. For us, it’s about playing the MI brand. We know what the MI brand is and I am sure the fans know exactly how we play. And we will know we are not playing our way by their reaction as well. Obviously, they are looking forward for us qualifying and going into the actual Champions League. We as players are also looking forward to qualify and going far in this tournament.

No team which has started the CLT20 in Qualifiers has won the tournament. Do you think MI can go all the way?
Why not! It’s an IPL team after all. It’s Twenty20 cricket. We have a very good team and we have done before. We have not done it before once, we have done it twice before, so why not the third time! But you still have to take one game at a time. We have to try to win each game. Winning cricket games is hard in itself, so it’s a matter of we playing well. Hopefully, once we get through to that main draw, we are gonna give us a good account of ourselves as a team.