Kieron Pollard: IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians release Pollard, Unadkat, Sams, Meredith; retain most of core squad

Kieron Pollard, Daniel Sams, Jaydev Unadkat, Tymal Mills and Riley Meredith are among the players released by Mumbai Indians for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season.

According to ESPNCricinfo, MI have retained most of their core players like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah. Also, with the future on their mind, the team has retained some exciting young talents such as Tilak Verma, hard-hitting Tim Davids, South African Under-19 sensation Dewald Brewis and Tristan Stubbs.

Pollard has announced his retirement from IPL as a player and will extend his association with the franchise as batting coach.

Ever since he signed with MI in 2010, Pollard has been one of the marquee players of the franchise, winning them many games with his all-round performances. In 189 matches for the side, Pollard has scored 3,412 runs at an average of 28.67, including 16 half-centuries. He has also taken 69 wickets for the five-time champions.

But the last season with Mumbai Indians was disappointing for him. In 11 matches, he could only manage 144 runs at an average of 14.40, with a highest score of 25. He hit these runs at a poor strike rate of 107.46. Also, he took only four wickets for his side in the tournament.

MI, who had a poor IPL 2022 performance after finishing last on the points table with four wins from 14 matches and eight points on the board, will enter the next season with an exciting mix of experience and youth.

Rs 20.55 crore and three foreign player slots are also left in their purse for the auction.

Locked and Loaded for #IPL2023 Introducing our stars for the upcoming season #OneFamily #MumbaiIndians, tweeted MI.

Mumbai Indians:

Released players: Kieron Pollard, Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Daniel Symes, Fabian Allen, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Rahul Buddhi, Riley Meredith, Sanjay Yadav, Tymal Mills

Players acquired via trades: Jason Behrendorff

Current squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Devald Brewis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Karthikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff Akash Madhwal.

Originally published at Pen 18