‘Scary and dangerous for rest of the world’ - Nicholas Pooran in awe of Indian youngsters' fearless approach [Exclusive]

Published - 02 Nov 2025, 15:06 IST | Updated - 02 Nov 2025, 15:06 IST

West Indies cricketer Nicholas Pooran shared his thoughts on Ayush Badoni, who has impressed everyone with his 360-degree stroke play in the IPL and domestic cricket.

He also spoke about the emergence of young Indian talents, highlighting how rapidly they are developing into dangerous competitors on the world stage. In an exclusive interaction with CricTracker, Pooran also mentioned that winning against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium remains one of his favourite victories.

Which young Indian cricketer has impressed you the most in recent years?

I'm impressed by Ayush Badoni. He has grown from strength to strength. I believe he's going to be really good. But I've spent a lot of time with him. I think he's going to be good. I saw in the latest domestic tournament, he's bowling now. So I'm going to hear a lot about that when I go back to the IPL next year. But he's a fantastic player. He's small in stature, but he can hit the ball 360 degrees.

Any special memory or match from your IPL journey that’s closest to your heart?

Winning against RCB. For us, at LSG, we take that really seriously. And we enjoy that a lot. That game we won in Chinnaswamy, where I scored 70 or 60. We kept them until the end. That game was a really big game for us. The guys really enjoyed it after. The dancing, the singing. Just spending time with the teammates was really special. For me, just to see the culture. Just to see how these guys are so happy after winning a cricket game. That was one of my nicest moments.

You’ve seen the rise of young Indian talents like Abhishek Sharma and Rinku Singh — what’s your take on this new fearless Indian batting generation?

Yeah, that's quite scary. But these guys are just not going to go out and be aggressive. The IPL is one where a lot of players now have developed over the years. And this is now the new way. These Indian players are high-skilled and high-quality players. They put the work in.

It's not like they're just going out and trying to smash sixes. They are actually practising it. And then they go in the IPL, the domestic tournament, and they are performing exactly like that.

So by the time they come to international cricket, they are ready to dominate. So I'm not surprised, but it is quite scary and dangerous for the rest of the world as well. While the young Indian batsmen are developing, I hope the rest of the world's batsmen are taking a page from their book and developing as well.