PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Nicholas Pooran’s dream of playing Test cricket for West Indies is still very much alive, with the regular in the regional side’s T20I and ODI squads saying he is ready and just waiting for the call-up.
The talented left-hander, who has so far only represented the regional side in white ball cricket, suffered nearly career-ending injury in a car crash five years ago, and he says while he was forced to focus on the shorter formats in recent years, he believes he is back on track to achieving his ultimate goal in the red-ball format.
“Growing up, I always watched Test cricket and I’ve always wanted to play. I had an unfortunate accident, I had to make decisions and had to live with the consequences. But now everything is alright with me and whenever I am called to play Test cricket, I am ready to play,” the 24-year-old Trinidadian said during a recent Windies Hangout on the @windiescricket Instagram page.
The rising star sustained ankle and knee injuries in the accident in January 2015. His left patellar tendon was ruptured and his right ankle was fractured. Despite the setback, he said he remained focus on getting back to the game.
“Sitting down at the hospital and sitting at home, I knew my dream was to be a professional cricketer. Mentally, I was so strong. I decided that anything that happened to me, happened for a reason and I just started to believe,” Pooran recalled.
“Every time I saw improvement in myself, I started to believe that it was possible I will play cricket again. I didn’t believe I would be down forever. Every time I went to sleep and woke up, I just decided that today was going to be a better day.”
After two surgeries and several months of physiotherapy, he was able to walk again and eventually made his cricketing comeback.
“My girlfriend and her family, they came and prayed for me; started to teach me about the Bible and religion. They just told me to believe. I started to believe and I saw for myself that every day I was seeing improvement. I believe it’s because of my belief and trust in the Lord. That changed everything for me, to be honest,” added Pooran who has played in several T20 franchise leagues around the world, including the Caribbean Premier League, the India Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, and the Bangladesh Premier League.
The aggressive middle-order batsman made his T20I debut for the West Indies, less than two years after his accident. He played for the regional side against Pakistan in September 2016.
Pooran made his ODI debut against England in February 2019.
He then went on to secure a place in the West Indies squad in the 2019 Cricket World Cup which he ended as the leading run-scorer for the regional squad, amassing 367 runs in nine matches, which included his first ODI century.
