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Former West Indies T20 captain Nicholas Pooran has been in sublime form in recent times. But is there enough in it to justify comparisons to the ‘Universe Boss’, Chris Gayle? There is at least one writer who seems to think so.
Against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata last week Tuesday, it was Pooran who helped power his Indian premier League team, Lucknow Super Giants, to victory.
He came in to join opener Mitchell Marsh at the fall of fellow opener Aiden Markram’s wicket at 99. He raced to his third fifty of the season. Just 21 balls. He was still there at 238 for 3 after 20 overs.
He crashed seven fours and eight sixes. That took his personal tally to an unbeaten 87 off 36 balls. It was his best-ever IPL score.
Andre Russell bowled the 18th over. Pooran, signed by LSG for US$2m, smashed a total of 24 runs, three fours and two sixes. By the end of his innings, he had become the second-fastest batsman to reach 2000 IPL runs. DreRuss, his fellow West Indian whom he savaged towards the end of his innings, had needed 78 fewer balls, only 1,120.
Three days later on Friday, Pooran powered LSG past the Titans. He blasted 61 off 34 balls, including seven sixes.
(via Prokerala.)
After six IPL 2025 matches, the records show, the powerful, prolific southpaw led all scorers with 349 runs at a strike-rate of 215.43. And his tally of 31 sixes was 11 more than second-placed Punjab Kings’ skipper, Shreyas Iyer.
Even before his Friday heroics, however, the now 29-year-old Pooran impressed one British writer enough to encourage him to go where no one had gone before.
Not to be confused with New Zealand pacer Matt Henry, Matthew Henry is, we are told, a “BBC sport journalist”. In mid-week, Henry opted to pen a numbers-rich piece on the “West Indies left-hander (who’s) dominating T20 cricket while striking sixes at will”.
Its thought-provoking, not to say provocative, headline? Has West Indies’ Pooran perfected T20 batting?
(via Probatsman.)
But Henry does not stop there. Is, he dares to ask, Pooran the “best in the world and better than Gayle?”
One commentator dubs the now retired left-handed Jamaican opener, the self-styled ‘Universe Boss’, “one of the most explosive and dominant batsmen in the history of T20 cricket, undoubtedly the greatest and most influential player in the history of T20 cricket.” Few, I submit, will disagree.
In Henry’s far-from-brief piece, there is plenty of Pooran. Little mention of Gayle’s claim to fame. Not even the bald IPL career statistics: 142 matches, 4,965 runs, a highest score of 175 not out, 31 50s, six 100s.
Of course, there is no disputing that, over the past two seasons, the indisputably gifted Pooran has showcased remarkable skill in the shortest format of the game. He hit 139 sixes in 2024. In 2015, Gayle claimed the single-calendar-year record with 135.
So far this year, Pooran is averaging 4.8 sixes per match.
Few commentators have failed to comment on his dazzling hand speed and his uncanny ability to carve the ball over the boundary. Henry provides statistical details aplenty about how he fares against both pace and spin, left-arm and right-arm bowlers and yorkers and bouncers.
(via Newsday.)
As things stood at the end of last week, in 82 IPL matches, Pooran scored 2,118 runs with 13 half-centuries. His average was 35.30, his strike rate 169.17 and his tally of sixes 158.
“West Indies are a six-hitting team.” Who can forget how, as Kieron Pollard’s deputy and later as his replacement, the hard-hitting left-hander repeatedly insisted on that?
Subsequently, he seems to have set out to prove himself right. Consider this, Pooran is only one of five West Indians active in the 2025 edition so far. By the end of the weekend, Shimron Hetmyer (Rajasthan Royals), Sunil Narine, Russell and Sherfane Rutherford (Gujarat Titans) had cleared the boundary 31 times between them.
(Copyright IPL.)
Pooran alone? The same number: 31!
Here is a chunk of Henry’s article:
‘Since the start of last year he has scored 738 more T20 runs than anyone else, is averaging 42.31, and is doing so while batting with a strike-rate of 162.49.
‘Batters generally have a high strike-rate or average in T20s. Pooran is managing to achieve both.
Photo: Nicholas Pooran/ Wired868.
‘Only Virat Kohli has scored more IPL runs than Nicholas Pooran since the start of the 2024 season but Pooran’s strike-rate is 192.89 to Kohli’s 152.61
‘In his last 10 innings he is averaging 57.7 while striking at 199, suggesting he has found the cheat code.
‘He has hit 211 sixes since the start of 2024. The next batter on the list is South African Heinrich Klaasen on 124…’
With white-ball fixtures scheduled against Ireland, England, Australia and Pakistan later this year, the West Indies are making changes at the top. White-ball coach Daren Sammy has already been handed the reins of all three Men’s teams. He reports already having had potentially fruitful discussions with the franchise players in the recent past.
But there is no white-ball captaincy opening.
True, T20 captain Rovman Powell, on the KKR books at the IPL, has been unceremoniously relieved of his responsibilities. But 50-over skipper Shai Hope has already had those added to his portfolio.
Photo: Daniel Prentice/ Wired868.
Test skipper Kraigg Brathwaite is looking forward to taking his tally of matches for West Indies to three figures unencumbered by the cares of captaincy. He has tendered his resignation. There is no obvious replacement.
Pooran gave up the white-ball captaincy after just half a year in 2022. Is he potentially a red-ball captain?
I’m guessing that is what Henry thinks.
And wants the West Indies leadership to think.
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Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
