Nicholas Pooran will seek to banish memories of West Indies’ unproductive World Cup by staying on in England to play five matches for Yorkshire in the Vitality T20 Blast.
Pooran was one of several rookie players that West Indies’ captain Jason Holder had in mind when he called for them to become the heart and the soul of the team. That is what Yorkshire have in mind by calling up the Trinidadian with a view to improving a mediocre T20 record.
One aspect of the World Cup that has at least worked in Pooran’s favour is that he has reached the requisite number of international appearances (15 over the preceding two years) during the West Indies’ campaign to qualify for a visa as an overseas player in the tournament.
He has not had a bad World Cup, getting starts in four of his five innings, but his 63 against England at the Ageas Bowl is his only half-century for a West Indies side that is on the brink of elimination.
“It is hard work playing for different teams and still trying to be as professional as you can be,” Pooran said. “You’ve just got to adapt and learn about different people’s cultures and just try to be the best I can be for the team. It will be a new and exciting experience for me.
Pooran, who made his ODI debut in Bridgetown against England in February this year, will return to the West Indies setup in time for their home T20I series against India, which begins on August 3 in Florida. He has quickly established himself as one of the most explosive batsmen in limited-overs cricket with a strike rate of 140 in his 11 T20 internationals. He also top scored in the fledgling T10 competition in the UAE before Christmas, scoring 324 runs in nine matches for Champions Northern Warriors, including 33 sixes.
Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, said: “Nicholas is an excellent young talent, although he is only available for a short period, we hope it will give us early impetus in the competition.
“Johnny Tattersall has been incredibly effective as a batter in limited-overs cricket, but he has played every game this season. He has now got three back-to-back Championship fixtures and only a couple of days between the end of the Somerset match and the start of the T20s.
“We’re mindful of the workload of Tatts and we have been leaving things open to see how he was going. There are other areas we feel we need for the T20s, so Nicholas has been on the radar for some time. At some point we needed to make a decision on which path to take, so we decided to go for him, albeit for a short five-game spell.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo