{"id":154074,"date":"2026-04-11T18:47:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=154074"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:47:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:17:59","slug":"mi-vs-rcb-ipl-2026-kieron-pollard-dials-down-rohit-sharma-virat-kohli-narrative-ahead-of-marquee-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=154074","title":{"rendered":"MI vs RCB, IPL 2026: Kieron Pollard dials down Rohit Sharma\u2013Virat Kohli narrative ahead of marquee clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70851458\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Having played with and against the two veterans who will once again command attention on Sunday night, Kieron Pollard sought to dial down the Rohit Sharma\u2013Virat Kohli narrative ahead of Mumbai Indians\u2019 marquee clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Pollard, now Mumbai Indians\u2019 batting coach, insisted that the contest was bigger than individual rivalries, even as he acknowledged the value of the two stalwarts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou say it\u2019s a Rohit-Kohli show. I look at it as Mumbai Indians versus RCB. Let the individuals enjoy this phase of their careers. They are still performing, they are still doing well. And even if they are not, they deserve the right to decide certain things,\u201d Pollard said on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy that there are experienced guys still around. You need them to guide the younger players coming through, who will be the superstars in the next 10 to 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ipl\/virat-kohli-vaibhav-suryavanshi-orange-cap-signed-autograph-rr-vs-rcb\/article70850297.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Virat Kohli signs Vaibhav Suryavanshi\u2019s cap, pens sweet message<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>With Rohit set to turn 39 later this month and Kohli just a year younger, Pollard also brushed aside concerns around age, pointing to examples of longevity in modern cricket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImran Tahir is playing somewhere in the world at 46 or 47. MS Dhoni is still playing at 44. Fortunately, I\u2019m still playing around the world at 39. Different things motivate individuals to continue playing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese guys have done well for cricket overall. We tend to focus on age and what they should or shouldn\u2019t do. We should honour players who have put smiles on our faces over time and let them decide when it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on Apr 11, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ipl\/virat-kohli-vs-rohit-sharma-mi-vs-rcb-ipl-2026-clash-pollard-quotes-press-conference\/article70851458.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having played with and against the two veterans who will once again command attention on Sunday night, Kieron Pollard sought to dial down the Rohit Sharma\u2013Virat Kohli narrative ahead of Mumbai Indians\u2019 marquee clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium. Pollard, now Mumbai Indians\u2019 batting coach, insisted that the contest was bigger than&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_KOHLI-ROHIT_2_1_FCE9AV1V.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-E54","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/154075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}