"T20I ranking doesn’t show how good West Indies is" - Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran feels West Indies' T20I ranking doesn't do justice to their team's capabilities. West Indies are the only side who have won the T20 World Cup more than once, but they are 10th in the current ICC T20I rankings.
The 25-year-old is currently plying his trade for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League. The left-handed batsman admitted that his T20I record for the West Indies isn't good enough and hopes to improve that going into the World Cup. Nicholas Pooran speaking in a press conference said:
“Personally, I am looking forward to the T20 World Cup. As a team, our strength is T20s, for the last couple of years, we’ve been doing good in World Cups, but as a team where we are ranked [10th], it doesn’t show how good our team actually is. As a player, I am especially excited(about T20 World Cup) because I want to do good for the West Indies people and put a smile on their faces. My record for West Indies in T20s isn’t that good, and I want to improve that for the next couple of months."
Pooran explained why West Indies haven't done well in various bilateral T20I series and said they often miss their key players. However, for the World Cup, the team will be expected to be at full strength.
"I just believe that most of the series West Indies play, they don’t play with their strongest team. And by strongest I mean Chris Gayle, Pollard, Russell, Narine, Bravo in the team together. In the last couple of years, we haven’t witnessed these players together. Either most of them weren’t selected, some were unavailable … but definitely a case around that. We couldn’t play as a team after the last T20 World Cup." said Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran's T20I record for the West Indies
The 25-year-old has been playing T20 cricket around the globe for various franchises. Nicholas Pooran has represented Sylhet Thunder, Melbourne Stars, Khulna Tigers, Kings XI Punjab, Islamabad United and Yorkshire Carnegie. Besides, he has been a regular in the Caribbean Premier League where he has featured for three different outfits.
The fact that Pooran has played across so many T20 franchises shows he certainly has immense talent. But as the batsman mentioned, he hasn't managed to replicate that talent for West Indies at the international level.
Nicholas Pooran has played 24 T20Is for West Indies, registering just two half-centuries in the process. He has an average of 21.24 and a strike-rate of 124.91, which can be termed average at best. However, the southpaw is now eyeing a big performance in the upcoming T20 World Cup which will be held in India in October this year.