IPL 2025: Nicholas Pooran justifies his price and shows class during SRH vs LSG clash, here’s how

When Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) retained Nicholas Pooran for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, and paid him a whopping ₹21 crore, some people might have wondered if he was worth the price. He was being paid the same as Virat Kohli, and only Heinrich Klaasen’s 23 crore was above that price. Eyebrows were raised. Would people look at the IPL schedule for Pooran? Or buy IPL tickets to see him?

For those who have followed T20 cricket, yes and yes. And those who came to see LSG’s game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, saw a Nicholas Pooran special – a match-winning 70 off a mere 26 balls, to lead his team to a comprehensive win against last year’s finalists, and this year’s favourites. No more eyebrows, there will only be toasts raised to Nicholas Pooran now.

It was not surprising that it should have been Nicholas Pooran who led the batting. Since the start of 2023, Nicholas Pooran has been the most elite T20 batter in the world. No one has more than Nicholas Pooran’s 3845 runs in this period. He has also hit a whopping 277 sixes, nearly a hundred more than Heinrich Klaasen, who is second with 180. Not only has Pooran scored runs in heaps, he’s done it at a strike rate of 161.76.

And that’s across 126 innings – which incidentally means he hits 2.2 sixes per innings. In these two and a half years, he’s batted from No.3 to No.7. He’s hit spin and pace. And he’s left-handed, can keep wickets, is a leader, and a pretty athletic fielder if the gloves are not with him. No wonder LSG shelled out the big bucks to keep him. When you have a Nicholas Pooran on your roster, you don’t let him go.

Nicholas Pooran’s masterclass

The best shot that Nicholas Pooran hit in his astonishing innings was not a six, even though each maximum was breathtaking. It was a boundary when he walked across the stumps to Pat Cummins and scoop-flicked over short fine leg.

The previous ball had been bowled wide outside off, and Nicholas Pooran had almost dragged it back into the stumps. So he predicted what Pat Cummins was going to do, and one-upped him. He did it almost casually, as if he was reading the game three steps ahead of one of the best minds in cricket.

He would go on to hit 70 off 26 before Pat Cummins finally got him. But by then, he had landed several knockout punches to flatten SRH enough, that even if they mounted a comeback, LSG would have enough of a cushion to coast to victory. In fact, he had only 10 non-boundary runs. His fifty came off just 18 balls, the quickest in IPL 2025 so far, with delectable sixes and sumptuous fours.

In IPL 2025 so far, Nicholas Pooran has batted twice. And nobody has scored quicker than him in innings lasting at least 20 balls.

Quickest innings in IPL 2025 (min 20 balls)

‘Blessed with incredible talent’

“I don't plan to hit sixes. I just try my best to get into good positions,” Nicholas Pooran said after the game, while also elaborating on his unique gifts. “I've never worked on my bat speed, I'm just blessed with incredible talent. I'm glad I am getting the reward for my hard work over the years.”

When NicholasPooran says that about his batting, it’s not a boast, it sounds almost like a quiet acceptance of the truth. He has been given the No.3 spot in this LSG team, and they’re reaping the rewards of an unleashed Pooran, because there is enough batting to come after him.

Rishabh Pant said that the thinking behind having Pooran at No.3 instead of lower down was “to give freedom to him. I like that freedom too. But we've just told him to go express himself and he's batting phenomenally for us.”

LSG have been hit hard by injuries in IPL 2025. A clear-thinking, clean-hitting and uncluttered Nicholas Pooran might just be the tonic that revives them.