Big Bash League side Melbourne Stars have announced the signing of destructive West Indies batsman Nicholas Pooran for the start of the new season.

Pooran joins the franchise as cover for Jonny Bairstow, who will be unavailable for the early stages of the tournament due to Australia's COVID-19 regulations, with travellers into the country having to do an enforced 14-day quarantine.

The Melbourne Stars will now have a more than capable player as a replacement in Nicholas Pooran.

Australia have a travel bubble with New Zealand, which is where the 25-year-old will be representing the West Indies in a T20 series which concludes on November 30. So he will likely be allowed to arrive into the country without having to quarantine.

Nicholas Pooran, who will be available for six matches, is a big get for the BBL. Teams in the league have been courting him for a while now. He joins a star-studded Melbourne Stars squad, which also features the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa.

Nicholas Pooran will bring a lot of firepower to the BBL, and will go into the tournament on the back of some impressive performances for the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. The West Indian scored 353 runs at a strike rate of 169.71 in the recently concluded IPL 2020.