Singaporean-Australian cricketer Tim David made quite some noise after Mumbai Indians bid Rs 8.25 crores for him in the IPL 2022 auction, David had earlier played one match in IPL 2021 for Royal Challengers Bangalore but made a name for himself in the Big Bash League and the Pakistan Super League for his big-hitting prowess.
He has played T20Is for Singapore and has been in consideration for Australia team selection as well, and in an interview with his new IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians, David said that he aims to remain positive and showed the excitement of batting together with West Indian power-hitter Kieron Pollard.
“It is an exciting idea to bat with him. Polly is someone I have admired for his power-hitting and have looked at some of his innings to see how I can do that myself. If we could get going in the middle and death overs, we could take a few games away," David told mumbaiindians.com.
On skipper Rohit and his approach, David said, "Rohit Sharma is a world-class player. He just looks so effortless when he bats, it's very admirable. It is a huge bonus to be able to spend time with class players and try to pick their brains a little bit.
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I try to keep it simple. I could come in a lot of different situations but my aim is always to have a positive approach and be willing to take some risks. Sometimes it may not come off but there is no better feeling than hitting one off the middle of the bat and it going for a big six."
David has an extensive resume playing for teams like Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League, Southern Brave in The Hundred and Saint Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League.
MI coach Mahela Jayawardena has seen David up close and in the Hundred, termed him a hit property in the shortest format.
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"I think he is a hot property at the moment. In T20 cricket, he is known as a power-hitter. We have always had those options at Mumbai Indians. When we plan the auction and when we knew we had funds available after the Jofra Archer bid, we took into account the auction dynamics because a lot of the uncapped players were available and Tim became a great target for us," Jayawardene said.
The Sri Lankan batting great added: "Like we have the Bumrah-Jofra combination to look forward to, we can have the Pollard-Tim David combination at the back-end of the innings. Tim is a much-improved player in the last few months and he is still young. We look forward to having him in the dressing room. You saw the price (8.25 Crore), it kept going up and many teams were interested in him, not just us. I am sure he will have a fabulous IPL career."
In 14 T20Is for Singapore, David has 558 runs at an average of 46.5 and a strike rate of 158.52 since his debut against Qatar in July 2019.
(PTI inputs)
