Winning T20 World Cup in front of our fans will be even more special: Windies’ Nicholas Pooran

Nicholas Pooran. (Photo Source: Rich Storry/Getty Images)

Stumper-batter Nicholas Pooran will have to play a key role for the West Indies if they are to win a record third T20 World Cup title. The southpaw was in fine form during the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) and smashed a 25-ball 75 in West Indies’ solitary warm-up game against Australia. His rich vein of form would give the Caribbean fans a lot of hope ahead of the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup.

Windies won the T20 World Cup for the first time in 2012 under Daren Sammy’s inspirational leadership. In 2016, they became the first team to win the coveted silverware on two occasions. Pooran, who made his debut a few months after the second T20 World Cup triumph, said that the current team wants to bring the title home once again but this time in front of their fans. The 2024 T20 World Cup is set to be jointly hosted by the West Indies and the USA.

“Coming back in here after two years, everybody wants to get that special feeling we had when we won those two T20 World Cups. I feel like everybody wants that moment again. They want to be a part of that winning feeling. Doing it in front of our fans is even more special,” Pooran told ESPNcricinfo.

Also Read: Watch: Nicholas Pooran takes Aussies to cleaners in warm-up tie, belts eight towering sixes

The star cricketer replaced Kieron Pollard as the white-ball captain in May 2022. However, six months later, he relinquished the role, a decision Cricket West Indies (CWI) took as part of a review immediately after the 2022 World Cup failure. At the 2022 edition, Pooran and Co. won just one of their three matches in the first round, crashing out as Zimbabwe and Ireland progressed ahead of them.

We’re no longer the same group of guys: Pooran

The 28-year-old Pooran said that both he and several players have moved on from that debacle and are hoping for a redemption in the forthcoming edition.

“We all have grown as players, as team-mates as well. When we played in Australia where we didn’t qualify, everyone was hurt. I resigned [from] captaincy after that as well. Everyone was hurt. But we are no longer that group of guys,” Pooran said.

“We all know what’s at stake here. We all know that we have an opportunity to obviously redeem ourselves, make our cricket fans in the Caribbean and our cricket fans all over the world proud of us [and] happy. This time around, we are much better players as well. Most of our guys that play franchise cricket, they understand what is needed to be a professional as well,” he added.

Also Read: West Indies storm to fourth position in T20I Team Rankings ahead of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

The West Indies have been placed in Group C alongside Papua New Guinea, Uganda, New Zealand, and Afghanistan. Rovman Powell’s men start their campaign in Guyana on Sunday, June 02, as they take on Papua New Guinea.