Nicholas Pooran IPL Profile

Born on 2nd Oct 1995 in Couva, Trinidadi, Nicholas Pooran is a West Indies international who plays for Trinidad and Tobago in domestic cricket and Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League. The wicket-keeper batsman is a clean striker of the cricket ball and an explosive batter, who has been making waves in the shorter formats of the game.

Pooran started his cricketing journey in his formative years and later broke a lot of records at the school level cricket while playing for Naparima College. He later was signed by Trinidad and Tobago and he represented them in various age groups. He made his national under-19 debut at the age of 16 in 2012 and for the West Indies under-19s in 2013. He also represented his nation in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup and scored a memorable 143 runs against Australia which was the highest of the tournament. 

His incremental influence was detected by the selectors and his impressive form got rewarded with a call-up to the senior national team. His international debut in the Twenty20 format came against Pakistan in 2016. Although, he had to wait three more years for his ODI debut which came against England. 

Over the years, Pooran has become an integral part of the West Indies team and has been one of their pillars of the shorter format of the game. His 367 runs in nine matches in the 2019 World Cup is one of his notable performances in a tournament. Pooran also held the role of the skipper of the national side in both T20Is and ODIs after Kieron Pollard retired in 2022. Although, after a disappointing show in T20 World Cup in 2022, he stepped down.

Pooran's IPL career has been somewhat of a mixed tenure so far. After an underwhelming first season for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL - he was picked up by Mumbai Indians in 2017. However, he did not play any games. 

After getting released from the Mumbai-based franchise, Punjab Kings snapped him in 2019. He recorded 168 runs in his debut campaign. In 2022, Sunrisers Hyderabad bought him and it turned out to be a successful tournament for him, where he recorded 306 runs. 

On the back of his impressive performance, he caused a bidding war at the players' auction ahead of IPL 2023 eventually making his way to Lucknow Super Giants for a massive Rs 16 Crore.