Fantasy and fairytale probably led LSG to send Pooran against Narine: Ex-Windies World Cup winner dissects Pant's move

Carlos Brathwaite said it was a bad move in light of Nicholas Pooran’s current form with the bat.

Updated on: Apr 27, 2026, 08:41:10 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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The decision to send Nicholas Pooran in for the Super Over is not sitting well with many. Former West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite, who hit Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes to help his team win the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, criticised Lucknow Super Giants’ move to send Pooran to face his own countryman Sunil Narine, whose record against the batter in the past had been quite good, especially in the Super Over.

Nicholas Pooran was cleaned up off the first ball. (PTI)

Pooran was cleaned up off the first ball as he went for a slog sweep. On the third ball of the over, Aiden Markram was removed too, which meant KKR needed just two runs to win the contest, which they did without any fuss.

Also Read: ‘Couldn’t hit water if he fell out of boat': LSG lambasted, management shredded for ‘criminal’ Nicholas Pooran move

In the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), 12 years ago, Narine made Pooran dance to his tune and didn’t concede a single run in a Super Over. Overall, Pooran’s record against Narine is not bad. In the lead-up to the game, Pooran had scored his runs against Narine at a respectable strike rate of 131.08. In 148 balls, Pooran had been dismissed only four times as he averaged 49 against Narine.

Looking at those numbers, sending in Pooran wasn’t such a bad idea; however, in light of his current form, maybe it was. Last year in the IPL, Pooran struck at 196.25, but this year he has been a pale imitation of his previous self at 81.18.

Poor call for sure!

Braithwaite was surprised by the call that Rishabh Pant made with Pooran. “Baffling decision. Someone, I am not gonna name him, said if Pooran comes out [probably referring to the CPL Super Over mentioned above], it could be a maiden. [It happened] Like, many, many years ago.

“But yeah, he's [Pooran] really struggling. When he's on form, you want him against anyone, but he's not. And with six balls, who are your most in-form players?

"I mean, no one really struck it well on the night, so you're basically going off of profile as such, two countrymen know each other quite well, and maybe there was a fairy-tale feeling, and a bit of fantasy there that, you know, this could potentially get you out of the rut, go and have a swing, and see if you connect a few, and, you know, get a little bit of confidence.

"But ultimately, common sense prevailed, and the bad form continued,” Braithwaite explained what may have led to Pooran’s sending-in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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