IPL 2018: Bravo and Pollard - divided by teams, united by jersey numbers

The eleventh season of the Indian Premier League kickstarted with a thriller as Bravo single-handedly won it for the Chennai Super Kings. Dwayne Bravo’s scintillating knock helped CSK triumph over their arch-rivals, the Mumbai Indians. Bravo’s amazing 68 of 30 helped the touring party pull off a stunner, from a situation where winning seemed almost impossible.

Dwayne Bravo completely stole the show with an all-round performance. He not only slammed 7 sixes and scored 68 but also picked crucial wickets and bowled efficiently. Unlike his Carribean counterpart, Pollard didn’t have a great day on the field. He did not get a chance to perform either with the bat or the ball. However, there was one common thing between both the Carribean buddies, their jersey numbers.

Carribean dudes sport an identical jersey number – 400

Both the West Indian all-rounders featured in the season opener with a temporary jersey number. However, the 400 on Pollard’s jersey has a different meaning from that of Bravo’s. Both of them sported 400 number jerseys to celebrate unique landmarks. Keiron Pollard celebrated his 400 T20 games while Bravo celebrated his 400 T20 wickets.

Pollard is the first cricketer to feature in more than 400 T20 games while Bravo is the first bowler to pick 400 wickets. The Mumbai Indian, Pollard played 414 T20 games all around the globe. On the other hand, Bravo scalped 413 wickets featuring in 376 games. Both the Trinidadians played almost every T20 league in the world.

When asked about the identical jerseys, Bravo said, ” Pollard is the first player to play 400 T20 games. So he has 400 on his back. And I’m the first bowler to get 400 wickets. So the both of us said, ‘okay if we both play the first game in the IPL, let’s do something different.’ It’s a great milestone for both of us personally.”

“Pollard spoke to Mumbai, I spoke to CSK and they allowed us to play in this game. Moving forward in the tournament, we both will go back to our respective numbers – 47 and 55. I’m happy that 400 is a lucky performance,” he was quoted in the press conference after the match.

Mumbai Indians – where it all started:

Interestingly, Bravo and Pollard started off their IPL journeys with the Mumbai Indians. Bravo featured for the Mumbai Indians for the first three seasons after which he was picked by the Chennai Super Kings Franchise. On the other hand, Pollard was picked by MI following his heroics in the Champions League T20 and Big Bash in 2009. He played his first game for MI in 2010.