Nicholas Pooran was retained for 21 crore by Lucknow Super Giants ahead of IPL 2026. He scored 82 runs in eight IPL matches so far for them. He has a 58 percent dot ball rate. And on IPL 2026 Sunday night in Lucknow against KKR he was dismissed for zero off one ball in a Super Over to hand the game away.

The Nicholas Poor-Run is no longer a slump. It is an elimination threat.

Nicholas Pooran is averaging 10 at a strike rate of 81 and LSG just sent him into a Super Over against Sunil Narine

Mohammed Shami hit a six off the final ball of the KKR innings to tie the match at 155 and for one brief moment Ekana Stadium felt like a place where LSG’s IPL season might be turning. Then came the IPL Super Over.

Justin Langer sent Nicholas Pooran in first to face Sunil Narine despite Rishabh Pant Mitchell Marsh and Mukul Chaudhary all being available in the dugout. Sunil Narine bowled. Nicholas Pooran attempted a slog-sweep and was bowled off the first delivery. Aiden Markram followed and also fell and LSG posted one run, the lowest Super Over total in IPL history.

KKR chased the two runs required without breaking a sweat. LSG’s fourth IPL 2026 consecutive home defeat was complete and they now sit at the bottom of the points table with two wins from eight matches. Langer at the post-match presentation defended the call by saying nobody plays Sunil Narine better than Nicholas Pooran based on their overall T20 record.

What Langer did not say is that Nicholas Pooran’s Super Over record against Sunil Narine specifically reads one run from eight balls across two previous occasions before Sunday and that on the night he had made nine off twelve balls in regular play at a strike rate of 75. That is not the profile of a player you send into a Super Over against a bowler in the form of his life. That is the profile of a selection made on reputation because the season has run out of better ideas.

The numbers do not support the decision and the history makes it worse

Justin Langer’s defense of the Nicholas Pooran selection rested entirely on the overall T20 head to head between the two players, 207 runs from 168 balls at a strike rate of 123. That number sounds reasonable until you realize that 123 strike rate is nowhere near what a Super Over demands and that the specific Super Over history between the two players is far more damning than the aggregate.

In the CPL 2014, Nicholas Pooran faced Sunil Narine in a Super Over and scored zero from five balls. In the CPL 2021, he scored one from two balls. On Sunday he scored zero from one. His combined Super Over record against Sunil Narine across all formats now reads one run from eight balls with two dismissals. His overall Super Over record in T20 cricket is one run from ten balls with five dismissals.

These are the numbers of a player who is specifically and repeatedly unable to perform in the highest-pressure single-over situations in the format and sending him in first in a Super Over against the bowler who has dismissed him twice in that exact scenario before is not backing your best player as Langer described it.

It is backing the player your franchise spent 21 crore on because the financial commitment has made the selection feel non-negotiable even when the evidence says otherwise.

Nicholas Pooran vs Sunil Narine (Super Over battles)

1. 2014 CPL: 0 (5) – Not dismissed
2. 2021 CPL: 1 (2) – Dismissed
3. IPL 2026: 0 (1) – Bowled

Overall in T20 Super Overs:

• Runs: 1
• Balls: 10
• Dismissals: 5

The collapse from 196 strike rate to 81 in one IPL season is not a slump

What makes Nicholas Pooran’s 2026 season so alarming is not simply that the runs have dried up but the manner in which they have.

In IPL 2025 he scored 524 runs at a strike rate of 196.25, the most destructive batting average by any player in the tournament that season. In IPL 2024 he made 499 runs at 178 strike rate. The Nicholas Pooran of those two seasons was a player who arrived at the crease and immediately took the game away from the opposition before they could set a field or execute a plan.

The 2026 version is averaging 10.25 with a dot ball rate of 58 percent which means more than half the deliveries he faces result in no run at all. Sanjay Bangar has pointed out that his front foot is planting too early, a technical symptom that often indicates reflexes that have slowed down whether through injury or fitness decline or simply the accumulated fatigue of playing T20 leagues continuously without the structure of international cricket.

Nicholas Pooran retired from West Indies cricket in June 2025 at 29 and while that decision freed him to be a full-time franchise player it also removed the competitive intensity of regular high-level international cricket that keeps a batter’s reactions sharp.

The Ekana surfaces this season have been slow and low which compounds the problem because Pooran is fundamentally a through-the-line hitter who needs pace to work with and the Lucknow pitch has been offering none of it. Teams have adjusted by opening with left-arm spin the moment he arrives and the numbers show he has not found an answer.

LSG are on the brink and Nicholas Pooran’s position in the XI is the question they can no longer defer

Two wins from eight matches. Bottom of the table. Four consecutive home defeats. A Super Over loss that should never have been as close as it became and was only close because Shami hit a miraculous six on the final ball.

This is where LSG stand going into a seven-day break before their next match against Mumbai Indians and the question about Nicholas Pooran is not going to answer itself during that week regardless of how many net sessions he has.

The franchise spent 21 crore retaining him based on two exceptional seasons and the logic at the time was sound. A player who can score 524 runs in a single IPL at 196 strike rate is worth the investment.

But that player has not shown up in IPL 2026 and the longer he occupies a spot in the XI on the strength of his price tag rather than his current form the more damage it does to a lineup that already has Pant struggling for consistency and the middle order failing to function as a unit. Josh Inglis has been striking at 190 in the nets and is waiting for an opportunity.

Himmat Singh and Matthew Breetzke are on the bench. The management has options and the seven-day break gives them the time to make a decision they have been avoiding for several weeks. Nicholas Pooran the player deserves patience.

Nicholas Pooran the 21 crore retention has been getting it for eight matches and the patience has produced 82 runs a 58 percent dot ball rate and one run in a Super Over. LSG cannot afford another eight IPL matches of the same answer.