of the series after the Australians had won the first, he was upstaged in the first innings by fellow opening bowler George Pope, who took 5/58. But Wisden noted that "the most damaging blow was a beautiful ball by Pollard which took Hassett's middle stump". And in the second innings, Pollard's 5/76 outshone Pope's 3/69. His figures were even better in the next match: 6/75 in the Australians' first innings. And he took four wickets in an innings in both the fourth and fifth matches of the series. Although Pollard had played several matches in 1945, he was not yet discharged from the forces, and this limited his appearances in the first full season for first-class cricket in 1946. He managed only 12 County Championship matches for Lancashire, though he took 55 wickets in those games. He did, though, finally play his first Test match: the second match of the three-Test series against India. The previous week, he had played in the annual Gentlemen v Players match and had taken nine wickets in the game for just 53 runs. During this match, he spent a period off the ground negotiating with his Army chiefs his availability for the Old Trafford Test. In the Test itself, he had a sensational start. After the Indians had reached 124 without loss on the second day of the match, Pollard caused a collapse with a spell of four wickets for seven runs in five overs. In the innings as a whole, which ended with India all out for 170, he finished with 5/24 off 27 overs, 16 of which were maidens. In the second innings he took two further wickets for 63 runs. That performance earned Pollard selection for the 1946–47 Ashes tour, and he and Bill Voce were given special leave from the Army to make the tour. But, Wisden wrote, "neither had sufficient pace to be really troublesome in the clear Australian atmosphere". Pollard's 28 wickets on the tour as a whole cost more than 36 runs each, and he did not feature in the Tests in Australia, although he won his second cap in a rain-affected single Test in New Zealand, when he took three wickets for 73 runs. Having arrived from a country that had had seven years of rationing Australia was a 'land flowing with milk and honey' and Pollard soon put on two stone (28 lbs) in weight.