After dramatic IPL West Indies batter Nicholas Pooran ditches international cricket with shocking retirement

West Indies wicket-keeper batsman Nicholas Pooran has announced his retirement from international cricket at just 29. Nicholas Pooran goes down as West Indies' most capped international player in the shortest format of the game and their highest run-getter.  

Before announcing his shocking retirement, Pooran was last seen in action in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, where he starred for the Lucknow Super Giants. The Lucknow Super Giants went on to secure the player for a huge INR 21 crores. 

Pooran stood by his standards in the IPL as well. He contributed significantly to LSG's limited success in the IPL, going on to score 500+ runs and also scoring 5 crucial fifties, with the most number of sixes, 40. 

Nicholas Pooran's retirement will be a massive jolt for the side that are already on the backfoot, especially after West Indies' continuous failures in white-ball cricket, with the biggest concern being missing out on the 2023 World Cup qualification. 

Pooran holds a massive record of being named the first player to have hit the most number of sixes in the shortest format in the last year. Pooran sits at the top with 170 sixes. 

A Glimpse of Nicholas Pooran's International Career

The 29-year-old West Indies great was not picked for the ongoing tour of the West Indies against England, as he asked the cricket board for a break after playing continuous cricket, including both international and franchise-level games, over the last year. 

Pooran is among the very least successful players to have never had a test cap, as he never made his debut in the longest format of the game. However, he made his T20I debut back in 2016 and went on to play 106 games as the leading T20 run-scorer with 2275 runs. 

His ODI debut came much later in 2019, when he went on to star in 61 games in international cricket and scored 1983 runs with the highest score of 118. 

However, he continues to star as a multi-format player in franchise-level games, playing cricket leagues across every nation in the world, including the MLC, IPL, and the SA20. Having starred in nearly 400 T20 games, Pooran went on to score 9166 runs with the highest score of 102*, and counting. 

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