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AB de Villiers, one of the finest batsmen of the 21st century is a leading light in the cricketing world. Fans are crazy about De Villiers’ unique batting and whimsical power-hitting. With his extraordinary ability to send the ball in any corners of the ground, the former South Africa international is a nightmare for any bowling attack.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that ABD belongs to a special league of supremely talented batsmen. Despite retiring from the international arena in 2018, De Villiers still remains a powerful opponent in various T20 competitions.
But who matches De Villiers’ ability in the Indian Premier League (IPL)? Well, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has answered the question while speaking on Star Sports’ chat show ‘Cricket Connected’.
Pooran can play all kind of shots: Gambhir
Gambhir said that the West Indies’ wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran is a kind of player who possesses all kinds of shots. The former Delhi cricketer opined he would like to watch Pooran in the upcoming season of IPL.
“For me, Nicholas Pooran is the young player I would like to watch in this IPL. We talk about AB de Villiers as a 360-degree player, but Nicholas Pooran has all types of shots. He can play the reverse sweep, normal sweep and is capable of playing the big shots,” said Gambhir.
The cricketer-turned-commentator further stated that he is confident of Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) coach Anil Kumble to bring the best out of Pooran.
“So, such a player, when he plays under a coach like Anil Kumble, I have full confidence that Anil Kumble will be able to extract the best out of him. A great coach, who had won Mumbai Indians the title, I would want to see what he can do with the Kings XI,” added Gambhir.
Pooran was roped in by KXIP for 4.2 crores ahead of the 2019 edition. He played seven games in the previous seasons scoring 168 runs at a strike-rate of 157. Pooran was last seen in the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020, where he accumulated 245 runs in 11 games with one hundred and a half-century.
