'Hard to put into words': Nicholas Pooran retires from international cricket at 29

Over the past five weeks, the cricketing world has witnessed several big names announcing their international retirement.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

It began on May 7 when Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket before being joined by the talismanic Virat Kohli five days later, quitting the longest format.

These were followed by Glenn Maxwell bidding adieu to One-Day International cricket so that he could channel his energies towards the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka early next year, and South African stumper Heinrich Klaasen walking away from white-ball formats internationally—he had already retired from Tests—within a few hours of each other.

Joining Klaasen now in the list of former internationals—Rohit and Kohli are still available for ODIs, Maxwell for T20Is—is West Indies' highest-ranked T20I batter Nicholas Pooran. What caught everyone by surprise was Pooran, the gifted left-handed batter from Trinidad who set the first half of IPL 2025 alight with his sensational ball-striking for Lucknow Super Giants, is just 29.