Pooran Is the Only Batter in the IPL Who's Elite in All 3 Phases
119 Total Surplus — the Highest Batting Value in the 2025 IPL
Nicholas Pooran finished IPL 2025 with a total surplus of 119 runs, more value generated above expectation than any other batter in the tournament. He scored 526 runs off 267 balls at a 197 raw strike rate, producing a +45 SRae. He hit 45 fours and 40 sixes. His boundary rate: 32%.
Those are headline numbers. But the stat that separates Pooran from every other elite batter in 2025 isn't rate or volume. It's phase distribution. He is the only top-5 surplus batter who faced meaningful samples in all three phases of a T20 innings.
The Three-Phase Profile
| Phase | Balls | SR | League Avg SR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powerplay (1-6) | 65 | 163 | 152 |
| Middle (7-15) | 143 | 206 | 145 |
| Death (16-20) | 59 | 214 | 172 |
65 PP balls. 143 middle-overs balls. 59 death balls. That's a genuine all-phase sample, not a batter who inflates his numbers by only facing deliveries in favorable conditions. Pooran batted in every phase, against every type of bowling, in every match situation. His 197 SR isn't a product of cherry-picked matchups. It's a product of sustained excellence from over 1 through over 20.
His middle-overs SR of 206 across 143 balls ranks among the top three in the league in that phase alone, 61 points above the league average of 145. His death SR of 214 across 59 balls exceeds the league average by 42 points. And unlike death-only specialists, he gets there after already contributing through the middle.
The Peer Comparison That Defines His Value
The top-5 SRae batters in IPL 2025 all produced extraordinary rate numbers. The difference is where they produced them.
| Batter | SRae | Balls | Death Balls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sooryavanshi (RR) | +60 | 121 | 0 |
| Abhishek Sharma (SRH) | +45 | 225 | 0 |
| Pooran (LSG) | +45 | 267 | 59 |
| Ayush Mhatre (CSK) | +39 | 127 | 0 |
| Priyansh Arya (PBKS) | +30 | 264 | — |
Sooryavanshi faced zero death balls. Abhishek Sharma faced zero. Pooran faced 59. The gap between Pooran and the next-closest top-SRae batter in death-overs exposure is 59 balls, an entire stint of death-overs batting that none of his peers experienced.
This matters because death overs are the hardest phase to bat in. Bowlers bowl their best spells, fields are set for containment, and the pressure of a finishing innings creates context that inflates difficulty. Batters who avoid the death phase, either through dismissal or batting order, never face that filter. Pooran faced it 59 times and posted a 214 SR.
Surplus Leaderboard
| Batter | Total Surplus | SRae | Balls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pooran (LSG) | 119 | +45 | 267 |
| Abhishek Sharma (SRH) | 101 | +45 | 225 |
| Shreyas Iyer (PBKS) | 81 | +24 | 344 |
| Priyansh Arya (PBKS) | 79 | +30 | 264 |
| SKY (MI) | 79 | +18 | 427 |
Pooran leads Abhishek by 18 runs of surplus. Abhishek's SRae is fractionally higher (+45 vs +45), but Pooran's additional 42 balls of exposure translate into more total value. Rate and volume both contribute to surplus; Pooran leads in the combination.
Suryakumar Yadav's 427 balls dwarf Pooran's 267, but SKY's +18 SRae produces less value per ball. SKY's 79 total surplus across 427 balls means he generated 0.18 surplus runs per ball. Pooran's 119 across 267 balls means 0.45 surplus runs per ball, 2 times SKY's rate. Volume alone doesn't compete with Pooran's rate advantage.
WAR: Top-Tier T20 Batter Globally
Pooran's 0.42 raw WAR per match places him in the top tier of T20 batters globally, with a regressed WAR/M of 0.39 across 315 career matches. That's pure batting value, zero bowling contribution. His batting WAR per match of 0.42 across 5182 career balls confirms a sustained, high-volume career rather than a single breakout season.
Our 2026 projection has Pooran at 0.62 WAR per match with a projected season WAR of 7.82. The confidence is high, though the trajectory is declining as age regression begins to factor. Even so, Pooran's projected value exceeds every other middle-order batter in the league.
The 85 Boundaries
45 fours and 40 sixes across 267 balls. That's 85 boundaries, or one every 3 deliveries. His 32% boundary rate exceeds typical winning-team averages of 24% by nearly 8 percentage points.
The four-to-six ratio matters too: 45 fours and 40 sixes means Pooran hit almost as many sixes as fours. Most batters skew 2:1 or 3:1 toward fours. Pooran's near-equal split indicates he scores his boundaries over the rope as often as along the ground, a hallmark of a power-hitting profile rather than a placement-based one.
2026 Context: Pooran at #3 in LSG's Optimal XII
LSG's 2026 squad construction is built around Pooran's all-phase profile. He slots in at #3 in our optimal XII (batting position 4), with Mitchell Marsh (0.51 regressed WAR/M) and Josh Inglis (0.32 regressed WAR/M) ahead of him. Rishabh Pant (0.27 regressed WAR/M) bats at #5, giving LSG two of the most destructive middle-order bats in the league operating in tandem through overs 10 to 20.
Mohammed Shami's return from injury gives LSG pace depth they lacked. Mayank Yadav's raw speed offers a different bowling dimension. LSG's WAR-based Elo (1486) sits seventh in the league. Pooran's three-phase value is the primary reason their projected WAR remains competitive despite thin Indian middle-order depth.
The Number: 59
Death balls faced. In a league where the top SRae batters avoid or barely sample the death phase, Pooran leaned into it. 59 balls at 214 in the hardest phase of T20 cricket. That's not just elite batting. That's elite batting without conditions attached.