The Indian Premier League (IPL) has always proved to be an ideal platform for talented cricketers to showcase their skill and pedigree against the best in the world in the shorter format of the game.

Over the years, the IPL has been the gateway for many T20 stars like Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, who made the most of this breeding ground by churning out stellar performances for their sides and booked their ticket to the Indian team.

The thirteenth edition of the IPL in the UAE will also witness some young turks who would compete with their most experienced and fancied counterparts to stake a claim that they belong to the highest level.

Former KKR skipper and IPL great  Gautam Gambhir is of the opinion that Windies hard hitting batsman Nicholas Pooran who will play for KXIP in this edition of the league will be one supremely talented cricketer to watch out for.

Gambhir went on heap praises on the Windies strokemaker by saying that he has all the shots in his armory and even compared him to South African batting genius AB De Villiers.

Pooran has drawn a lot of appreciation for his belligerent batting with even Windies T20 stalwart and batting great Chris Gayle deeming the southpaw as the next big thing for West Indies cricket.

Gambhir also feels that a cricketer of Pooran’s caliber should bloom and blossom under the mentor-ship of Anil Kumble, who is serving as KXIP’s coach this year.

“For me, Nicholas Pooran is the young player I would like to watch in this IPL. We talk about AB de Villiers as a 360-degree player but Nicholas Pooran has all types of shots. He can play the reverse sweep, normal sweep and is capable of playing the big shots,” Gambhir said during a discussion on Star Sports’ chat show Cricket Connected.

“So, such a player, when he plays under a coach like Anil Kumble, I have full confidence that Anil Kumble will be able to extract the best out of him. A great coach, who had won Mumbai Indians the title, I would want to see what he can do with the Kings XI.”

Pooran was roped in by Kings XI Punjab last season in IPL would look to fare well this season with the bat after faring rather poorly in the last season with just 168 runs in 7 games.