Nicholas Pooran - Right pick for SRH this season?

Sunrisers Hyderabad has failed to make an impact with their performance and has lost both the matches played till now. They sit at the bottom of the points table with a massive negative run rate of -1.825.

Sunrisers Hyderabad did not have a good season in the previous edition. But, when mega-auctions were held this year, Hyderabad fans expected a better shuffle of players. The franchise retained three players from the last IPL season and picked 20 new players in the mega-auctions.

Most expensive West Indies player for Indian Premier League 2022

One of the new key-expensive picks of the franchise was West Indies player Nicholas Pooran. The wicket-keeper batter bagged a bid of INR 10.75 crore from Sunrisers Hyderabad and became the most expensive West Indies player at this year’s auction. While some fans were happy with the player picked, some questioned the choice. The bid came as a disappointment for some fans because of his horrible performance throughout the Indian Premier League 2021. He averaged just 7.75 with the bat while playing for Punjab Kings in the middle-order. 

The 26-year-old expressed his gratitude towards the franchise for showing faith in him and said, “…Just because I had one bad season, it’s not going to change the player I am. I am doing pretty well in international cricket, and everyone sees that. For me, it’s about giving back to my team — the Sunrisers Hyderabad have invested a lot in me, and so I only want to give my all for them — to me, it’s about being the best version of myself.”

A disappointing start for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Nicholas Pooran

Just when this season began with lots of hope, Kane Williamson led Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their opening match with Rajasthan Royals by 61 runs. Whenever a team faces a defeat or win, the focus automatically shifts from the complete playing XI to the hot picks of the franchise and their performances. Something similar happened in the first two matches of SRH, where a lot of hopes got shattered by the middle-order batter Nicholas Pooran. While most of the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters crumbled against Rajasthan Royals , fans expressed the biggest disappointment in Nicholas Pooran, who got out for a nine-ball duck. In the last 15 IPL innings, Pooran has managed double-digit scores only three times, and the fans turned his misery into a meme fest.

The form is temporary, but the class is permanent

In the last match against Lucknow Super Giant, he scored 34 off 24 balls giving a glimpse of his performance during the West Indies tour to India. He was in his ultimate form in that T20 series smashing 61, 62, and 62 runs on Indian fields giving challenging time to Indian bowlers. This performance, before mega-auctions, might have prompted Sunriser Hyderabad Management to splash such a whopping amount on the player. Nicholas Pooran has expressed his willingness to work under Brian Lara, the batting coach for Sunrisers Hyderabad this season.