(Cricket news) Nicholas Pooran will be waiting to join the list of West Indies greats when he plays against England in the ongoing T20 series. He needs 34 runs to become the 7th player from the country to score 1000 or more runs in the shortest format of the game. Pooran has scored 966 runs in 45 innings with a strike rate of 128.11. Only Kieron Pollard, Elwin Lewis and Lendl Simmons have more runs than him among active players.

The left hander was the second highest scorer in the team in T20s last year. With 485 runs in 21 innings, the wicketkeeper batter has been a high profile player for the team which has never been short of T20 players. West Indies has given the game the top players in the format, the hard hitting has always been a part of the Caribbean game. Pooran is one of the few players in the side who has the power as well as the right technique. Usually at the middle order, Pooran has switched positions in the batting line up numerous times. In the last three T20 matches, he came in at number 3 but last year played at number 4, 5 and even came in at 7 once.

He had his own challenges while starting for the national team. A car accident put him out of the sport for two years and in 2016 he played the Bangladesh Premier League as it led to a ban from cricket West Indies for 10 months. Pooran did not let any of the distractions slow him down as he was used to pressure from a young age. He was the youngest player to feature in CPL at the age of 16 and hit a half century in his debut match.

Apart from keeping and batting, the former Trinidad Red Steel player also captained the side in 8 matches last year in T20 while winning 4 of them. Pooran knows how the side has seen few senior players exit the game and soon there will be a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. Although he made his debut for the team in 2016 in a T20 against Pakistan, he has had a good amount of experience in handling and leading the players in matches. Now the 26 year old will look to join the 1000 run club as the side has two more T20 matches to play against England.

Also read: I probably didn't want to play cricket at all: Starc looks back at tumultuous phase