There are batsmen who do well in all formats of the game. Then there are some, who despite, having genuine or natural talent to perform in every format, function only as limited overs’ specialists.
Why they do so is a mystery no Sherlock anywhere in the world can solve. It’s a puzzle so rattling that even if CIA were to put its best mind reading experts to solve, they’d end up at the vicious Abu Gharib prison rather than solving the sheer complexity.
Now, while I’m no security expert as much as I’d like ant to be, maybe that’s because if this is an enquiry worth undertaking, then it would rather make sense to have the subject involve himself in it, instead of having someone else decode it?
Fact, however is, that whether or not Nicholas Pooran– bowler smasher, the man behind exhausting countless fielders on the ground when he gets going- himself gets involved in decoding why he’s not playing Test match cricket, there’s something he needn’t solve.
And it’s how to disrupt bowlers, accelerate quiet scoring rates and in the process, operate as the mayhem that strikes neighbourhoods- quiet, struggling or posh- when a storm strikes.
His numbers, glowing and aggressive, say a thing or two about the man behind the easy-going, gum-chewing persona.
The very man who hails from Trinidad, belongs to the West Indies was perhaps born for no other reason other than entertaining tens of dozens of fans around the world.
This is amazing and inspiring in equal measure unlike the unease that flows from the situation where a highly capable batter doesn’t wear the West Indian Test whites.
But Pooran, who’s turned 29 just hours ago, must be thanked for being who he is. Make no mistake that he is a batsman that can impact games inside a few overs and convert a dull outing for Windies fans into one overflowing with excitement by his sheer presence on the 22 yards.
This is so exciting because in an age of AI overdrive, the fan is anything but artificial when it comes to loving the sport.
The fan back in the Caribbean still very much fills the stands, despite the West Indies still being miles from playing white ball cricket with the results consistently drifting from them.
The possible exceptions in the recent times include the mega T20I series wins both in and away from the Caribbean against South Africa; the Windies smashed the Proteas as visitors last year under Powell’s leadership whilst hammering the same outfit as hosts just weeks ago.
Pooran, who got off to fliers in one dayers at South Africa (2023) was again in familiar element as seen most recently in the Caribbean, with good friend Hope coming good with the bat, as per normal.
One reckons, what must encourage Nicholas Pooran since he’s quite familiar in this territory is to further amplify his one day international numbers.
Just 17 shy of 2,000 one day international runs, the blazing left hander has already scored 1983 ODI runs from 2,000 deliveries. And he hasn’t amassed these numbers; he’s hit them, taking only 58 innings to be in striking range of a milestone any batsman would like to score.
That he has struck 3 hundreds and 11 fifties already from a little over 52 plus one day international innings has made him a fan favourite besides somewhere earning the scorn of bowlers.
By the way, his ODI strike rate is 99.15.
The man as on date has hit a 50 or 50 plus score in every 4.14 innings in one day international Cricket may want to hit more and in the process produce dollops of innings of the kinds he did against Sri Lanka in his maiden ODI World Cup event, circa 2019 in England.
Pooran first rescued his team that was falling apart before producing a counterattack so timely and profound that it would have elicited replies from even the most tacit of fans or unexpressive but glorious former cricketers. Think Greatbatch, Jayasuriya, Klusener or maybe even Carl Hooper himself.
That Pooran’s maiden ODI World Cup century came miles way from the comfort and familiarity of playing at a ground like the Queen’s Park Oval, his home turf, was a fitting display of sparkling West Indian batting talent gladly in a theatre far bigger than the land of its emergence.
But half a decade on from that glorious 118 off 103, supported ably by Fabian Allen’s compelling 51 off 32, the Jamaican also playing his maiden ODI World Cup back then, Pooran hasn’t been able to better his three figure score.
Though he’s hit mesmerising scores ever since that have single handedly snubbed his opponents such as the mighty Indian national cricket team, a collective where two names often overpower the nine others who are undeniably talented in their own right, there’s work to be done.
Isn’t it?
A point to prove?
What the Couva-born has to look at is to convert flying starts into big three figure scores. Think of his 89 against India, an opponent against whom he averages 45.
Pooran’s batting prowess is heightened by the fact that he’s hit two fantastic centuries in international 50-over cricket, one each against Nepal and The Netherlands and that too, in the 2023 ODI World Cup qualifiers. It was an event where the West Indies’ qualification was on the line as also where the team found itself unarguably its lowest ebb in failing to make it through.
However, in the very contest where the Windies faltered with former captain and established all rounder, Jason Holder got butchered in the super over by Logan Van Beef, a cricketer with perhaps a third of the experience in comparison to the Bajan, Pooran was on the charge.
He was all heart. He was full might.
But it wasn’t enough.
And one notes it may never be for the man who is just 2 games away from playing his 100th T20 international unless the brave batsman applies more patience to flair, the latter that unquestionably beautifies his game.
In a format where the Windies batters have made quite a name and with it, mega fortune, by hitting sixes, Nicholas Pooran carves many for fun.
Another six half a dozen hits and he’d have reached 150 sixes.
And here’s the catch.
the man who was once bedridden with his cricketing future in the dark thanks to an unfortunate accident that could well have claimed his life has only played 98 T20I’s and hit several gun blazing shots.
When on song, Nicholas Pooran converts cricket into a game of adventure akin to John Wick operating in beast mode. But then Pooran also falls when the team needs him often playing one poorly judged stroke one too many. That the team has Hope, and loads of it, literally speaking thanks to Shai committing himself to national duties, perhaps it is time for the two other prominent faces to become the trident that the West Indian batting can still become. One of them hits the ball quite a distance. His name?
Well, Shimron Hetmyer.
The other is Nicky P, who’ll be 30 in 2025 but will surely be in the sphere of effortless and classy batting, the King bee.