Nicholas Pooran, famously known as Nicky P, made an immediate impact in the Caribbean Premier League 2013, where at just 16, he delivered a swashbuckling 24-ball 54. He followed up with strong performances in both the Champions League and the 2014 ICC U-19 World Cup, where he scored 303 runs from six innings.

A traumatic car accident sidelined the Trinidadian for two years. He returned to the CPL in 2016 and earned a national call-up, but his decision to play in the Bangladesh Premier League over domestic cricket led to a 10-month ban from international play.

Pooran has been regarded as one of the best talents emerging out of the Caribbean islands in the recent past.

The flamboyant left-hander will have to stand up to all the expectations that team management has of him, or else his story too will be another addition to the stories of talents who could not make use of it.

Nicholas Pooran International Career

Nicholas Pooran made his T20I debut for the West Indies against Pakistan on September 23, 2016, and struck his first T20I fifty against India in November 2018. He entered the ODI World Cup squad shortly after, scoring fifties against England and Afghanistan and a hundred against Sri Lanka, finishing the tournament with an average over 52 and a strike rate of 100.

In 2022, he was appointed West Indies' white-ball captain, and that year's T20 World Cup was seen as a potential coronation for the team's ageing golden generation. They suffered an early exit in the first round of the tournament, and Pooran quit the captaincy in November that year.

Nicholas Pooran Retires at 29

On June 10, 2025, Nicholar Pooran, at just 29 years of age, drew the curtains down on his nine-year international career with 2,275 runs in 106 T20Is at a strike rate of 136.39, with 13 fifties. The decision was made to prioritise his career in franchise T20 leagues, seeking better financial stability and a more flexible schedule.

Pooran ended his international career as the then-most capped West Indies player in T20 internationals (106 games) and also as the team’s leading run-scorer in the shortest format (2275), having surpassed Chris Gayle at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

After making his ODI debut against England in February 2019, the hard-hitting southpaw finished his international career with 1,983 runs in 61 games at an average of 39.66 and a strike rate of 99.15. He slammed three hundreds and 11 half-centuries in the ODI format.

He also captained West Indies in both white-ball formats in 2022, including at the Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.

Nicholas Pooran IPL Career

The southpaw was picked up by the Kings XI Punjab for the Indian Premier League 2019 for a stupendous sum of Rs 4.2 crore. However, he could not own the season and ended up adding only 168 runs from the 7 games he was selected for.

The southpaw was rated highly by the previous management led by the then coach Mike Hesson, who had called him ‘young Chris Gayle’ and the 2020 IPL season was proof of it. He became an integral part of the PBKS squad in 2020, scoring 353 runs, including a high score of 77. 

A terrific white-ball hitter, Pooran had a disastrous start to the 2021 edition of the IPL, being dismissed on 4 ducks in 7 innings, and was ultimately replaced by Dawid Malan.

Pooran further represented Sunrisers Hyderabad before becoming a core component of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). He delivered a monumental campaign during the 2025 season, scoring 524 runs in 14 matches at an astonishing strike rate of 196.25 while hitting a tournament-leading 40 sixes. 

Valuing his consistent match-winning capabilities, LSG officially retained him for a massive INR 21 Crore ahead of the 2026 season.

(As of April 2026)