IPL Auction 2019: 3 teams that could target Nicholas Pooran

Nicholas Pooran is a promising wicket-keeper batsman hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. He represented Windies U-19 in 2014 U-19 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. He is a part of Barbados Tridents and Multan Sultans (now the Sixth Team) in Caribbean Premier League and Pakistan Super League respectively. He was also a part of Mumbai Indians in IPL 2017 but didn't get a chance to play a single match.

The 23-year-old has played 78 T20 matches in which he has scored 1249 runs including five half-centuries to his name. His T20 career strike rate is 141.12.

Here are the three teams who should target Pooran in the upcoming auction.

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#1 Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad had a great tournament in the IPL 2018. They ended up being the runners-up of the tournament after they lost the finals against Chennai Super Kings.

Sunrisers never had a problem of top-order but they were having problems with the middle order. Middle-order was filled with the likes of Manish Pandey, Shakib-al-Hasan, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan. But they failed to impress with the bat in the tournament.

Also, they have released Wriddhiman Saha, who was injured in the middle of the tournament last season and was replaced by Shreevats Goswami who failed to perform with the bat. Goswami scored 52 runs in 6 matches.

So, it will be a smart choice by SRH to bid for Pooran as he is a T20 specialist and is unlikely to play the ICC World Cup 2019.

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#2 Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore had a mixed campaign in IPL 2018. They were on the verge of qualifying the playoffs but were unfortunately knocked out by Rajasthan Royals on 19 May 2018 when the former lost by 30 runs.

The middle order of the team failed to impress the team with the bat. It was filled with the likes of Moeen Ali, Sarfaraz Khan, Corey Anderson, Mandeep Singh and Colin de Grandhomme. Corey Anderson came in as a replacement for Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

Anderson scored 17 runs in 3 matches with the strike rate of 77.27. RCB might be regretting the decision of retaining Sarfaraz Khan before the 2018 auction as he scored 51 runs in seven matches with the strike rate of 124.39.

So, bidding for Pooran in the auction will be beneficial for RCB as he will help to power the middle order of the team.

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#3 Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils had a disastrous campaign in IPL 2018. They won just five matches in the tournament.

The middle order was filled with Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Maxwell, Harshal Patel, Chris Morris, Dan Christian and Abhishek Sharma. Rishabh Pant had a great IPL season as he ended up being the emerging player of the tournament. Vijay Shankar was quite fine with the batting. Glenn Maxwell failed to impress the team as he scored 169 runs in 12 matches with the strike rate of 140.83.

Now, he has been released by the franchise. Tewatia scored 50 runs in just eight matches. Christian, who is a hard-hitting batsman, failed to impress the franchise as he scored 26 runs in four matches with a strike rate of 78.78 and is no more the part of the franchise.

Windies star Pooran could be a possible option for DD as he can add some strength in the middle-order.