Rohit Sharma is a world-class player, and batting with Kieron Pollard is an exciting idea: David

Tim David, the Mumbai Indians’ Rs 8.25 crore big-hitting recruit, is excited to play alongside India captain Rohit Sharma and West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.

David, a power-hitter from Singapore, was recently acquired by MI after a heated bidding war in the IPL mega auction. David, a huge fan of Pollard, has been trying to emulate the veteran West Indian swashbuckler’s power game as the 15th edition of the lucrative league approaches and believes the two of them can accomplish a lot together.

“Batting with him is an exciting prospect. Polly is someone I’ve admired for his power-hitting ability, and I’ve studied some of his innings to see how I can replicate it. We could win a few games if we could get going in the middle and death overs,” David told mumbaiindians.com.

“Rohit Sharma is a world-class player,” David said of skipper Rohit and his approach. He just looks so natural when he bats, it’s admirable. It’s a huge advantage to be able to spend time with class players and pick their brains a little bit.

It is important to me to always maintain a positive attitude, even if the situation is challenging. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but there’s no better feeling than hitting one off the middle of the plate for a big six.” David has played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2021 IPL, the Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, the Lahore Qalandars, and Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League, the Southern Brave in The Hundred, and the Saint Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League.

As the head coach of MI, Mahela Jayawardene has worked with David in the Hundred and could have been involved in the selection of what he terms ‘hot property’ in the shortest format.

“I think he’s a hot property right now.” He is known as a power-hitter in T20 cricket. At Mumbai Indians, we’ve always had those options. After the Jofra Archer bid, the auction dynamics became an important factor, and Tim became an attractive target for us,” Jayawardene explained. The former Sri Lankan captain and batting legend went on to say, “Like the Bumrah-Jofra combination, we can look forward to the Pollard-Tim David combination at the end of the innings.

“Tim has improved a lot in the last few months, and he’s still young.” We’re excited to have him in the locker room. You saw the price (8.25 crore), it kept rising, and many teams, not just us, were interested in him. I am confident he will have a successful IPL career.” David has played 14 T20Is for Singapore, scoring 558 runs at an average of 46.5 and a strike rate. In July 2019, he debuted against Qatar with a score of 158.52 points.

The 25-year-old David is looking forward to using the opportunity to face players like Jasprit Bumrah at MI nets to better prepare for the tournament.

The bowler I’m most excited to face in the nets is Bumrah I know it sounds strange because he is one of the best in the world, but I believe it will be a great opportunity to put myself to the test against him. I’m sure it will be difficult work.”