Pooran had a below-par season with five single-digit scores before he was dropped in his side's final game before the tournament was suspended.
Punjab Kings had a middling season in the truncated 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) before it was suspended due to the rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 inside the bio-bubble. One of the major reasons for Kings' poor show especially in batting was owing to the poor form of their swashbuckling middle-order batsman Nicholas Pooran, who won them a couple of games on his own in the last season.
Pooran played seven of the eight games for PBKS and got a chance to bat in six innings and in those 6 innings, he recorded just one score above 10. Pooran scored a total of 28 runs including four ducks. Pooran returned with scores of 0 (1), 0(0), 9, 0 (2), 19, 0 (3) in the six innings he batted.
Scoring at an average of 4.66 and a strike rate of 84, Pooran had a complete reversal of form playing for the Punjab franchise compared to last season in which he was on fire and was destroying teams for fun. In the 2020 season of the IPL, Pooran amassed 353 runs averaging 35, striking at a whopping 169.71.
Pooran's dismal form was one of the main reasons for PBKS' downfall this season especially in the middle-order as apart from one innings by Deepak Hooda, none of the batters performed well for them as that resulted in them falling 15-20 runs short, which Pooran used to provide them. His form meant he was dropped after 7 games and World's No 1 T20 batsman Dawid Malan made his debut in the IPL for Punjab Kings in their last game against the Delhi Capitals before the tournament was postponed.
However, Pooran has seen the bright side of it all. Taking to Twitter, Pooran mentioned that he will take this form in the IPL as motivation to come back stronger more than ever. He also said that the suspension of the tournament was heartbreaking but was also necessary seeing the situation in India because of the COVID-19.
Pooran wrote, "The suspension of the tournament and the reasons behind it are heart breaking, but neccessary. See you soon IPL! In the meantime I'll be using this picture as my motivation to come back stronger than ever. Keep safe everyone."
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