IPL 2024: When will Ishan Kishan start scoring runs for MI? Kieron Pollard reveals

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Mumbai Indians batter Ishan Kishan started off his IPL 2024 campaign with a duck against Gujarat Titans, but MI coach Kieron Pollard backed the young player to score runs soon.

Ishan has been going through a tough period. After opting out from the Test Series in South Africa, the youngster lost his BCCI Central Contract and hasn't featured for India since.

He made a dismal start to the IPL 2024 after getting out for a duck against the Titans. Azmatullah Omarzai, who made his IPL debut for GT, picked up Kishan's wicket as the five-time IPL champions started off their campaign with a defeat.

Amid this, Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard kept the faith in Kishan and said that the franchise expects 'big things' from the player.

"I don't understand the controversial circumstances. You have stated clearly as to why he wasn't playing so I guess we need to take that into consideration. Everything as a player and individual as well, playing international sports is very very tough, it's not very easy as people would think," Pollard said in the post-match press conference after defeat in Ahmedabad.

The fearsome ex-West Indies player confirmed that Kishan is training well and assured runs will come flowing from his bat within the next two matches.

"For him, again, he did not score tonight so, we can look at all sorts of different things, but I said it's a long tournament, he is an experienced guy within our setup and we expect big things from Ishan, he is in a good space, he has been practising well and has been doing fairly decently, so hopefully within the next couple of games, you can see great performances from him and all of you will continue to laud his brains when he does that," the MI batting coach added.

The 25-year-old has been a key player for Mumbai over the years. He had a terrific IPL 2023, where the southpaw scored 454 runs with three half-centuries. In fact, Kishan has scored more than 400 runs for MI in three out of the last four IPL seasons.

After their defeat, Mumbai Indians travel to Hyderabad to face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday (March 27).