Pooran poised to top leaderboard
WITH 223 RUNS IN SIX MATCHES AT THE STRIKE RATE OF 161.59, POORAN HAS BEEN A BIG HIT IN TERMS OF HITTING SIXES
LUCKNOW : Fluency with his willow has been the hallmark of West Indies player Nicholas Pooran. After playing for Punjab Kings for three consecutive seasons, Pooran was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 10.75 crore in 2022. The year after, he received a steep salary hike when he joined the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for Rs 16 crore. For the last two seasons, the 28-year-old batter-keeper has been doing wonders for LSG.
With 223 runs in six matches at the strike rate of 161.59, Pooran has been a big hit in terms of hitting sixes.
LSG’s fourth home game this season, against the mighty Chennai Super Kings (CSK), on Friday will give him a chance to lead the chart of most sixes in the Indian Premier League after Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals overtook him and Shivam Dube of CSK after hitting his second IPL hundred this season.
Pooran has been a different player since 2023. Like Dube and Buttler, the Caribbean cricketer has been to the top of the charts with maximums in 2022, 2023 and the ongoing 2024 season.
England’s Buttler, after hitting six sixes against KKR on Tuesday night, currently leads the table with 69 sixes in 37 innings. He is followed by Dube (66 sixes in 31 innings) and Pooran (66 sixes in 34 innings).
Pooran smashed 21 sixes in 14 innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2022. Since his move to LSG, the wicketkeeper-batter has scored 45 maximums - 26 in 2023 and 19 in the ongoing season. His senior and former West Indies star Chris Gayle holds the record for most sixes in IPL followed by Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Undoubtedly, Buttler, who has been a consistent run-getter over the past few seasons, struggled a bit last year, but bounced back superbly this time, hitting two centuries in six innings and notching up 10 maximums to add to his 14 from last season and 45 from the 2022 season to take his tally to 69. Dube, a transformed player since joining CSK in 2022 and tipped to be in the playing 11 when Team India head overseas for T20 World Cup, has also smashed over 60 sixes in the IPL following his Rs 4 crore purchase by the defending champions in the 2022 mega auction.
Buttler, Dube and Pooran have hit the most sixes in IPL since 2022 followed by the likes of Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson. Liam Livingstone of Punjab Kings and Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders also feature in the list.
Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Heinrich Klaasen and Shimron Hetmyer also made huge strides in terms of maximums over the past three seasons, including in the ongoing edition. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Klaasen’s surge is also phenomenal as he smashed 49 sixes in 17 innings since IPL 2023. KKR’s Rinku Singh has hit 32 sixes since the last season, whereas MI’s Ishan Kishan has smashed 31 sixes in the same period.