AHMEDABAD: Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard defended the decision to bat captain Hardik Pandya 11 (4b; 1x4, 1x6) at No. 7 and said it was a collective move taken by the team management. MI finished at 162/9, falling short by six runs in their IPL opener against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
"No decision is made on full autonomy, so we can't say it is his decision. As a team, we have plans. We talk about setting entry points for batters. The top order batted deep into the game, and we also had two power hitters to go in the back end. Usually, if you look at it over time, Tim (David) has finished games for us, and Hardik has done it over the years.
