Hello Yellow Army!
Okay, there is a very wild and strange news has come. On 24 October, Mumbai Indians announced that Kieron Pollard has been elevated as their head coach. And the same Pollard whom just 17 days ago our own Joburg Super Kings bought at the SA20 auction!
Just think about it for a second. Pollard hitting our bowlers all over the park in an MI jersey is nothing new for us, and now he will be sitting in the MI dugout as head coach against us in IPL 2027. The only thing that is really new is that in the SA20, in January, we might finally get to see him in yellow!
Yellow in the SA20, blue and gold in the IPL, and a head coach's cap in The Hundred as well. So wait, what is really going on here? Let's break it all down.
What Mumbai Indians announced
Pollard had been MI's batting coach for the last four IPL seasons, after he stopped playing in the league following the 2022 season. Now MI have promoted him to the top job, and he takes over from Mahela Jayawardene, who parted ways with the franchise only last weekend. MI's own announcement does not mention his predecessor or his SA20 plans, though.
Nita Ambani, MI's co-owner, said that Pollard "joined Mumbai Indians as a young 22-year-old" and has become a part of the MI family, and that he "knows what it means to wear the MI jersey". Pollard himself called it an honour to be the head coach of Mumbai Indians, and thanked Nita Ambani, Akash Ambani and the MI family for their trust.
It is not a surprise that MI trust him. He first signed with them as a player before the 2010 season, and he was part of all five of their IPL titles, in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, as well as their two Champions League T20 wins in 2011 and 2013. In the IPL he played 189 matches, scoring 3412 runs at a strike rate of 147.32, and he picked up 69 wickets as well.
The strange part: Joburg Super Kings
Now here comes the twist. Just on 7 October, Joburg Super Kings bought Pollard at the SA20 Season 5 auction for R1.5 million, as we covered in our JSK auction report. That is a big change in itself, because in SA20 he has played for MI Cape Town in 2024 and 2025-26, so this will be his first time in yellow there.
Honestly, though, wearing many hats is nothing new for Pollard. He is already the head coach of MI London in The Hundred, and he has also been playing for MI's sister teams: MI New York in Major League Cricket from 2023 to 2026, MI Cape Town in the SA20 in the 2024 and 2025-26 seasons, and MI Emirates in the ILT20 from 2023 to 2025-26. This year he also turned out for Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL. So he is still active on the franchise circuit at 39, and coaching one MI team while playing for another is something he is already doing.
What we don't know is how it will work now. Neither MI nor JSK has said anything about it yet, so here are my open questions:
- Will he still play for JSK in SA20 Season 5, along with his new IPL job?
- And if he does, will he be facing MI Cape Town, the franchise that is part of his own MI family, in yellow?
- What does JSK head coach Albie Morkel think of it all?
I will update you as soon as there is something official.
What it means for CSK
Now the head coach story gets interesting for us, because CSK also have a new head coach. We recently told you that Zaheer Khan is CSK's new head coach for IPL 2027, and that CSK's staff is going through a big revamp. So when CSK and MI meet next year, it will be Zaheer vs Pollard in the dugouts, two coaches who know exactly how to fight each other, with both new in their roles.
Pollard knows MI's batting inside out after four years as their batting coach, and now he will plan the whole thing against us. And nobody knows how to hit a CSK bowler like Pollard did.
There is a flip side for JSK too. If he plays for them in the SA20, he could be really helpful against MI Cape Town, because he has been inside the Cape Town camp in the last two seasons and knows how they think and plan. That is a big inside edge for us in yellow, if it happens.
My take
For me, it is a good promotion for Pollard and a very MI thing to do, to keep their own people in their family. But the timing with Joburg Super Kings is what is bugging me. Let's see how JSK handle this. With his new MI job, even his SA20 appearance now looks doubtful, and time will tell. What if he pulls out? Then JSK might need to find another player as a replacement, so I will be watching that closely.
One thing is sure, though: CSK vs MI was already spicy on the pitch, with player against player, but now the fight has gone to the staff room as well. I will keep adding every update on the Super Kings Player Tracker, so keep an eye on it.
Stay healthy stay yellow.