Nicholas Pooran - The Franchise Kid
A new breed of West Indian players are ready to illuminate the game, none look more prime than Pooran.
The Kensington Oval filled up for one last time in the 2017 Caribbean Premier League as the under-performing Barbados Tridents tried to salvage a consolation victory against the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
Having been put in to bat, the Tridents decided to experiment and open with Nicholas Pooran who had struggled in the finisher role all tournament. After a cautious start, Pooran hammered Mohammad Hafeez onto the roof of the Oval. Two balls later, he tried to pull a full length delivery and was bowled.
It was the story of Pooran the entire tournament. He got off to flashy starts, but none of them materialized into substantial innings. He ended the tournament with an average of 15.10 at a strike rate of 138.53. Things were looking increasingly grim and frustrating - his blindingly obvious talent simply wasn’t producing the output it should.
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Fast forward to Providence Stadium in 2019 and this time Pooran was playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors against his former franchise Barbados Tridents. On a tricky deck, Guyana were stumbling towards a mediocre total having scored only 119 off their first 17 overs.
What followed was absolute carnage. Pooran, who was on 25 off 22 accelerated incredulously, scoring 36 off his next 8 balls. No, that is not a typo. With a solid base and neat shuffle, Pooran was timing the pants off the ball. He played outrageous flicks, open-stanced slices and front foot pulls on a slow and deteriorating surface.
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The innings at Providence came as a surprise to no one. All the way back in 2013, at 17 years of age, Pooran was switch-hitting sixes for fun against Sunil Narine. In the U-19 World Cup the following year, Pooran compiled an incredible 143 runs out of a team total of 208. Anyone who followed West Indies cricket closely enough was talking him up as the next superstar.
At that point, Pooran was still far from the finished product and it was crucial that he continued to develop at the domestic level. However, his career came to a grinding halt when he was involved in a car accident rupturing his patella tendon. Pooran feared his career was finished as he missed the entire 2015 season in rehab.
After his comeback, Pooran had a feud with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and was not reintegrated into the domestic setup. He decided to become a freelance T20 player, but franchise cricket can be cruel. With only limited overseas players allowed per team, franchises demand runs or experience on their back, and Pooran had none. With all pathways leading to a dead end, it looked like Pooran’s career was going nowhere and the concerns were augmented by that frustrating 2017 CPL - the only league in which he got a consistent run.
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Some people believe Pooran underperformed in last year’s CPL. He averaged 38.40 at a strike rate of 150. That is incredible for someone who supposedly wasn’t at his best. So how is it that Pooran’s value has skyrocketed to the point where he is one of the hottest properties in white ball cricket? Let us take a look at some of the reasons.
Kieron Pollard’s mentorship
It is well known that Pollard is one of the icons in West Indies cricket and having seen Pooran’s talent very early on in Trinidad and Tobago, he decided to take him under his wings. When Pooran was struggling to motivate himself during rehab, Pollard constantly stayed in touch with him and even exchanged training routines.
Pollard himself was a T20 freelancer at that point and that allowed him to grow his contact network across the globe. Despite his up and down performances for the Tridents, Pollard insisted on investing in Pooran affording him maximum opportunity to showcase his talent. Pollard was also the driving force behind Mumbai Indians picking Pooran for the 2017 IPL. While Pooran got no game time, being part of one of the most successful franchises in history allowed him to rub shoulders with the best in the world and gain maturity over time.
Lower-tier opportunities
Knowing that he was never going to get a consistent run if he did not perform in an overseas league, Pooran made sure he grabbed any opportunity he got. In 2018, Canada launched a Global T20 tournament in which Pooran was selected in a West Indies B team. Being part of a team that consisted of lesser known talents like Brandon King, Sherfane Rutherford and Fabian Allen, the onus was on him to play the role of a batting leader. He stood out as the galvanizing force in that team and reminded the West Indies selectors of his potential.
Then came the Bangladesh Premier League in 2019 where Pooran embarked on an upward climb from which he hasn’t descended. Having been picked by David Warner’s Sylhet Sixers, he outperformed everyone in the team with his scintillating hitting. He was promoted to number 4 and was given enough time to wreak havoc. Pooran has since become one of the most valuable number 4s in T20 cricket and currently bats there for West Indies.
Dominance against spin
Spin rules modern day T20 cricket. Most of the world’s best bowlers are currently spinners who choke teams and eke out wickets in the middle overs. Every T20 franchise values a batsman who can attack spin between overs 7-16. Alongside Rishabh Pant and possibly Shimron Hetmyer, no one is more accomplished to fulfil that coveted requirement.
Pooran strikes at 178 against leg spinners and 183 against left arm spinners. He only strikes at 134 against off spinners, but he almost never gets out - averaging just under 44. It is Pooran’s range against spin that stands out. When fast wrist spinners pitch the ball short, he rocks back very quickly and cuts or pulls square of the wicket. He is equally decisive with his footwork when the ball is pitched up. He can easily generate power down the ground or play the sweep shots. An outrageous switch hit off Indian wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on a tour to India exemplifies that range.
Ability to switch to top gear
When Pooran decides to start swinging for the hills, his hitting is close to unmatched. On numerous occasions he has shown he can go absolutely berserk like against the Tridents at Providence.
Against India in 2018, Pooran made 46 off his last 17 deliveries to propel West Indies at the death. That explosive innings at Chennai won him another chance in the IPL where he got an opportunity for Kings XI Punjab and didn’t disappoint.
A good metric that can be used to determine the ceiling of a T20 batsman is their record in the newly inaugurated T10 format. Pooran, representing the Northern Warriors, has a strike rate of 241 in T10 cricket. He hits a six every four balls and hits a boundary almost every alternate ball. Such efficiency in power hitting is almost unheard of - only Andre Russell can boast of such outrageous numbers. Even in T20 cricket, Pooran hits a six every 9.49 balls in the last two years. Only Russell and Asif Ali hit sixes at a better frequency.
Gradual development against quality pace
At present the only thing that could be said to hold Pooran back is his record against pace. When out and out fast bowlers like Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada or Oshane Thomas bang the ball in, Pooran is susceptible to top edging the ball or swinging himself out of shape.
However, during the 2019 World Cup, he showed signs that he is working on that aspect of his game. He was able to hit pull shots off Jofra Archer, Cummins and Wahab Riaz along the ground. If he can transfer that to T20 cricket, he can become the complete batsman.
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Pooran is the latest entry in West Indies’ long line of T20 terminators. He may well be the one who becomes the face of T20 cricket in the post-Gayle era. However, his unreal T20 exploits do not mean his potential as a cricketer ends there.
In Part 2 of our Nicholas Pooran feature Luke Dunning will lay out a 4 step plan for him to ace red ball cricket.
Article edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt
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