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General ESPN The Greatest T20 Players

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This thread is a general opinion
No. 11, David Warner
Little over six months after the first IPL season was played, an unknown 22-year-old took centre stage at the MCG and flat-batted Dale Steyn into the crowd. Just 22 games into his professional career and without a first-class match, Warner made 89 off 43 balls against South Africa in one of the most incredible international debuts in history.Warner seemed made for T20 cricket. He was signed by Delhi Daredevils for the 2009 season to kick-start the greatest IPL batting career by a non-Indian player. As a three-format international cricketer, Warner rarely played in the BBL and other T20 franchise leagues until his international retirement in 2024, but he has carved out an illustrious career in the IPL - playing every single season from 2009 through 2024, bar 2018, due to the sandpaper scandal.He has scored the fourth-most runs in IPL history at a strike rate of almost 140, and his average of 40.52 is only bettered by KL Rahul and Ruturaj Gaikwad (among those who have batted at least 50 times). There is a case to be made that he is the GOAT of the IPL.Warner arrived just when that league was taking off, and his aggressive instincts combined with a fearless approach in the powerplay made him a perfect fit. Short and stocky with a good eye and strong wrists, Warner was a hitting machine in his early years, able to club both seamers and spinners many rows back into the crowd.

Warner T20 factfile
Matches: 289
Runs:9636
Strike rate: 139.49
PotM awards: 27
Titles: 4


Standout stat: Warner has the most scores of 50-plus runs in IPL history - 66

In 2010 he smashed his maiden T20 hundred, 107 off 69 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders in an innings where he cleared out his front leg and struck clean and hard.Warner endured because he became so much more than a hitter. He worked on his fitness, made hard running a staple of his batting, and played smartly. His ability to either be an enforcer at the top of the order or to drop anchor, depending on what the team needs, is almost unparalleled in T20 cricket. And he has continually developed his range of strokes, efficiently producing switch hits to such devastating effect that he could seemingly pass as a right-hand batter.

Career high: Warner's 2016 IPL season is on the shortlist of greatest ever. He finished with 848 runs, struck at 151, and hit nine half-centuries from 17 innings. Leading from the front as captain, he was at his best in the playoffs. He made 93 not out to steer Sunrisers through a tense chase of 163 against Gujarat Lions before top-scoring for his side with a 38-ball 69 in the final against Royal Challengers Bangalore to secure the franchise's first title.
 
StreetSmart said:
I think the author is high on weed when making this list. So let me guess, AB, Gayle, Rohit, Gilchrist will be in top 10
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Don't think Gilly will be there. Gayle, AB, Rohit, Malinga, Russell, Bumrah, Narine would be there for sure. Gul and Ajmal should also be in the list but it's Cricinfo so unlikely
 
No. 10, Dwayne Bravo
A fluid blur of limbs, floating through the crease with rare balance and agility, showcasing the lithe athleticism of your typical West Indian fast bowler. But Bravo's genius lay in what happened next. Who could begin to second-guess his output as that magical whirring arm reached its apex, and the random-number generator kicked in? One minute, he'd be hurrying his quarry for pace with a 135kph bail-trimmer; the next, he'd cut the motor early and splut a 100kph powderpuff yorker through those same bamboozled defences. All of it done with a smile, an aeroplane-armed celebration, and as often as not, a "Champion" dance too. In a box-office format, DJ Bravo was T20's original action hero.Bravo did what he does for so long that he went from defying categorisation to defining the terms by which his successors will be judged. He was a good enough batter to make two Test hundreds in Australia, and yet his place in history will be determined by his endeavours between overs 17 and 20 of the T20 format, in which period he claimed 322 of his 631 career wickets (comfortably a record) and scored 2972 of his 6970 runs (at a strike-rate of 167), which underlined his mastery of that most fraught period of the game.Before Bravo, slower balls were a gimmick served up by "freaks" such as Ian Harvey, rather than an essential part of even the fastest bowler's armoury; before Bravo, teams tended to muddle through the back end of an innings, often by holding back a handful of overs from their strike bowlers, rather than turn to an outright specialist for such a role. In between whiles, he offered typically livewire fielding too. His 275 catches place him third in T20s, behind Kieron Pollard and David Miller.Bravo's 20 years at the highest level spanned almost the entire history of T20 cricket: his West Indies debut, in Auckland in February 2006, came in just the fifth T20I ever contested. By the time the IPL came along in 2008, he was already a key member of perhaps the first true T20 dynasty - the great Trinidad and Tobago team that dominated the infamous Stanford 20/20 and went on to hold its own at the equally short-lived Champions League. By the time of his retirement, he was synonymous with another, the mighty Chennai Super Kings, with whom he won three of his 17 global titles across a ten-year span.

Bravo T20 factfile

Matches: 491
Runs: 5715
Strike rate: 128
Wickets: 553
Econ: 8.29
PotM awards: 30
Titles: 17

Standout stat: Across the BBL, BPL, CPL and IPL, Bravo has taken 221 wickets in the death overs (17-20), almost twice as many as the next-best (Andre Russell, 115)

Career high: For all his success abroad, Bravo's pleasure in bringing his glory back home was self-evident, not least when he captained Trinbago Knight Riders to back-to-back CPL titles in 2017 and 2018.
 
No. 9, Shane Watson

Big, burly, barrel-chested… and breakable. Watson did remarkable things across formats over his injury-ravaged career, but when T20 came around in the mid-2000s, it seemed the format was perfect for him. He could hit, after all. Not slog. Not many batters crafted big T20 innings with that kind of clean down-the-ground striking. And not many from his country could bowl reverse swing and surprise bouncers quite as well as him at the time.But while he may have looked a natural, Watson said he had to work to develop into the T20 batter he became. "I was actually a top-order batsman who couldn't really hit that much," he said in April 2013. "I guess I was able to add another gear to my batting in the short forms of the game. Now, with T20 coming along, it's really suited my game."Over 343 T20s, in every part of the world, he averaged 29.3 with the bat, going at a strike rate of 138.3 for his 8821 runs. Throw in the 216 wickets at an economy rate of 7.9, and you have a superstar.

Watson T20 factfile

Matches: 285
Runs: 7359
Strike rate: 136.99
Wickets: 168
Econ: 7.98
PotM awards: 29
Titles: 7

Standout stat: Watson is the only player in the IPL to have scored 3500 runs and also taken over 50 wickets
The other Australian Shane, Warne that is, recognised this superstar aspect when he picked Watson for Rajasthan Royals when the IPL was launched in 2008. Of his emergence as one of the key members of that title-winning team, Watson said, "[The year] 2008 was a big catalyst in my career." ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats rated Watson the MVP of the tournament.In the IPL, with Royals, CSK and RCB, Watson hit 3874 runs, struck at 138, and averaged 31. He was your man for big games. Three times he was Player of the Tournament in a T20 league: the 2008 and 2013 IPLs, and the 2019 PSL. In playoff matches as well, he was the Player of the Match thrice: 2008 IPL semi-final, 2018 IPL final, and 2019 PSL qualifier.

Career high: His title-winning hundred for CSK in the 2018 IPL and many BBL, CPL and PSL performances come close, but Watson was never better than in the 2008 IPL semi-final for Royals against Delhi Daredevils. He first hit 52 from 29 balls and then nipped out the top three - Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan - to finish with figures of 3 for 10 from three overs.
 
No. 8, Kieron Pollard

Pollard was labelled a mercenary early in his career but will be remembered as a pioneer. Raised by a single mother on a Trinidad housing estate, he has earned tens of millions of dollars in T20 leagues, winning more than a dozen trophies - including five IPLs - and setting countless records along the way.He has also shaped the modern game, both on and off the field.

In his prime, Pollard was a phenomenal six-hitter who teams struggled to shut down, a handy medium-pacer, and an athletic boundary rider, taking a series of staggering catches on the rope. He was among cricket's first movers as a freelancer, who realised at a young age that declining a central contract would enable him to get paid what his skills merited.

By 22, Pollard had become a top earner at the IPL auction despite a patchy international record: he had been one of Allen Stanford's Superstars in 2008, and a year later launched a stunning assault on New South Wales' attack in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, hitting 54 off 18 balls to clinch an improbable win.It earned him the attention of Mumbai Indians, whom he represented for the next 13 IPL seasons. He continues to play under the franchise's umbrella in other leagues, and he has been an IPL and Champions League winner with them. He also boasts titles in the Caribbean, South Africa, Bangladesh, UAE and USA.

Pollard T20 factfile

Matches: 594
Runs: 11,968
Strike rate: 152.42
Wickets: 284
Econ: 8.23
PotM awards: 40
Titles: 19

Standout stat: He has hit 108 sixes in the death overs in the CPL, the most among all players; in the IPL, his 127 sixes at the death is second to MS Dhoni's 175

Pollard was not without his vulnerabilities: teams often targeted him with either bouncers or legspin, and MS Dhoni came up with the idea of posting a fielder directly behind the bowler in a bid to counter his straight-hitting.Yet his record should make clear that, more often than not, he found a way to counter whatever teams threw at him: of the 16 men with more than 10,000 T20 runs, Pollard is the only one to maintain an average above 30 and a strike rate above 150. Incredibly, in a career of nearly 700 games, Pollard has hit more sixes (908) than fours (842).

Career high: Mumbai Indians needed 55 off 18 balls when Pollard finally emerged at No. 8 in his first IPL final, in 2010, and their bizarre strategic decision to hold him back so late cost them. Three years later he made amends against the same opposition, Chennai Super Kings, walking out at 52 for 4, then blitzing a match-winning unbeaten 60 off 32 balls. It was the first of Pollard's five IPL titles.
 
No. 7, Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah is quite simply one of the two greatest fast bowlers to grace T20 cricket. Lasith Malinga and he appeared together for Mumbai Indians in five editions of the IPL; they won four of those.Bumrah is not a massive wicket-taker; his 17.7 balls per wicket in all T20s is not among the top ten strike rates among fast bowlers who have at least 275 wickets each. That's because he doesn't go looking for wickets at the cost of his team. His economy rate of 6.89, on the other hand, is the best among fast bowlers with 275 wickets or more. Malinga is second, at 7.07 an over.Bumrah is a rare all-phase bowler.

He can move the new ball with immaculate control, he can hit hard lengths in the middle overs, and he can nail his yorkers and variations at the death. His hyperextension, and consequently, relatively late release of the ball, becomes even more lethal in the shortest format, where you are obligated to hit out. Not only does he give you less time to judge length, he also gets the ball to lift - pitch fuller than anticipated - which gives him larger room for error on the yorker.


Bumrah T20 factfile

Matches: 163
Wickets: 206
Econ: 7.14
PotM awards: 11
Titles: 7

Standout stat: Bumrah has taken 15 or more wickets at an economy rate of under seven in four IPL seasons. The only other fast bowler to achieve this feat as many times is Malinga

Not able to hit out against Bumrah, batters feel compelled to take inordinate amounts of risk against other bowlers. At his best, Bumrah turns matches into 20 overs versus 16, plus any bonus deliveries the opposition can eke out of Bumrah's four.T20 is a format dominated by batters. The quality of bowling can often be immaterial because you have ten wickets to lose over a short period. You hit even good balls, happy to lose the odd wicket. There is often little correlation between the quality of the bowling and the runs scored off it. To stand out in this format as someone who must be played out is the biggest tribute there can be to Bumrah.

Career high: Mumbai Indians scored 148 and won by one run in the 2019 IPL final. Bumrah bowled one over in the powerplay for five runs, took out Ambati Rayudu in his only middle-overs over, and then returned at the death, conceding just eight runs in two overs to go with the wicket of Dwayne Bravo. His 4-0-16-2 secured MI their title.
 
No. 6, Chris Gayle

The OG. In the T20 cosmos, it's Gayle. No question.For some fearsome ball-strikers like Sanath Jayasuriya and Adam Gilchrist, the T20 boom came too late in their careers. Gayle was days short of 26, in the prime of a cricketer's life, when he played his first T20 match. A shining example of perfect timing.

The format muddled about on the fringes of cricket's consciousness in its early years, struggling for acceptance from the establishment. Its undeniable appeal, however, led the ICC to organise the first T20 World Cup in 2007. Gayle blitzed the first of his record 22 hundreds in the tournament opener, and put himself on top of the most-wanted list when T20 leagues began mushrooming all over the world in subsequent years.

His persona made him the poster boy for the format: 100% pure entertainer. Dreadlocks, flamboyant wardrobe, washboard abs, sense of humour, dancing feet, a love for a good time - Gayle had all that and showed it off. So when he proclaimed himself the "Universe Boss" at some point, the rest of us just ran with it.

No one dealt in the currency of T20 cricket, sixes, better than Gayle did. He loved hitting them, loved talking about hitting them, and let everyone know how great he was at it.

He remains the only batter with more than 1000 sixes, averaging more than two per innings.His methods were simple: stay balanced in his crease and use his powerful six-foot frame and long reach to launch the ball in the arc from cover to midwicket. Rarely did he charge at the bowler. Rarely did he reverse- or slog-sweep, or scoop. Gayle was all hand-eye coordination. He often even took his time to get his eye in before unleashing carnage. Old-school cool.

Gayle T20 factfile

Matches: 384
Runs: 12,663
Strike rate: 145.90
PotM awards: 50
Titles: 9

Standout stat: Gayle hit 357 sixes in the IPL, the record; the next best is Rohit Sharma with 280

There are only three players in the T20 game with more than 5000 runs at an average of more than 35 and a strike rate of more than 140 - AB de Villiers, David Warner, and Gayle, who finished at the age of 42 with 14,562 runs.

Career high: Gayle has hit ten or more sixes in a T20 innings on 18 occasions. For perspective on how staggering that is, Evin Lewis and Shreyas Iyer are next with four such innings each, followed by Andre Russell with three. The most memorable of those Gayle performances was for Royal Challengers Bengaluru - the franchise with whom he made his name in the T20 game - against Pune Warriors in the 2013 IPL. He hit 17 sixes that day - a record for most sixes in an innings that he broke four and a half years later - on his way to a century off 30 balls, which was the fastest at the time.

In a time when the value of T20 records is questionable because of how every game played between the ICC's 108 member countries is considered an international match, Gayle's 175 not out off 66 balls in Bangalore 12 years ago remains the highest individual score in the format.
 
No 5: Andre Russell

At some point in the rapid evolution of the format, T20 batters started to break stiff targets down into the number of sixes they would take. Fifty-three runs off 18 balls sounds bad. Nine good hits off 18, not so much. Just that you have to be as good as the batter involved in that real-match scenario, Andre Russell.

Over a 15-year career and counting, Russell has hit a six every 7.29 balls. No other player has taken under eight balls per six over any decent period of time. Chris Gayle, for example, the most prolific six-hitter in the format, took 9.53 balls per six, Nicholas Pooran hits one every 9.62 deliveries, and Kieron Pollard is closer to ten balls per.

Though mathematically a dot ball is a better result for a fielding side than a single, when Russell is on strike, a bowler ought to prefer giving him the single and getting him off strike to letting him get another look. A true pioneer, Russell specialises in the difficult role of walking in and making immediate and maximum impact.

Maximum impact from sixes is the philosophy the first dynasty of T20 cricket, the West Indies national team, adopted. Singles were the last option. A four was still two short. Try to hit even good balls for sixes. If one comes off in three, it is better than playing each of those balls on their merit and taking three singles. Of the six-hitting evangelists, Russell has been the high priest.
Among other records, Russell holds the one for the fastest fifty in the CPL, scored off 14 balls

Among other records, Russell holds the one for the fastest fifty in the CPL, scored off 14 balls

To introduce a new vocabulary and grammar to cricket as he did, Russell had to train dramatically differently. He calls himself a power athlete. He spends a lot of time in the gym "mostly doing power stuff". Sometimes, when he has friends over, chilling, he will disappear for an hour to his home gym and come back after a shower. He does push-ups and sit-ups in hotel rooms.

The idea is to have so much strength that he can play with a simple technique. No need to advance down the wicket to create momentum. No trigger movements, no lap shots, nothing cute. Just a strong base, stay still, clear the front leg and react to the ball. In the nets, he asks for low full tosses and yorkers from the throwdowns guy. To get used to getting under good balls.All this hard work truly pays off when even a mishit carries all the way for six. When the bowler knows nothing short of absolutely nailing a yorker will do, he is likelier to miss the mark. The pressure, in a way, is psychological, but it is induced by the physical strength and the hard work Russell puts in to become this explosive power athlete.

Russell T20 factfile

Matches: 455
Runs: 7945
Strike rate: 169.58
Wickets: 406
Econ: 8.62
PotM awards: 39
Titles: 11

Standout stat: Russell has played over 50 games in each of three T20 leagues, and has a strike rate of over 160 in each of them - 174.92 (IPL), 171.02 (CPL), and 166.66 (BPL).

The strength plays a part in him just ambling in and regularly clocking 145kph with the ball. Russell's body is not the most supple - bowling tends to get him inured - but in T20, it is not that big a strain. With the ball, he usually has the freedom to worry less about the holding job so that he can go all out looking for wickets. He bowls only about 2.5 overs per match, but is still among only six bowlers to have taken more than 450 T20 wickets.

Career high: Russell is one of only six men with ten or more title wins in T20 tournaments involving five or more teams. Eight of his titles are from leagues in five different countries. However, his high will remain 2019, a season when his franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, didn't even make the IPL playoffs. He hit 52 sixes in just 249 balls, scoring 510 runs at a strike rate of over two a ball, and also took 11 wickets in 30.1 overs.
 
Fireworks11 said:
Gayle surely in top 2 if not first on the list.

They’ve already mentioned Pollard, Russell, Maxwell, Afridi (albeit so low).

ABDV, Gul and Malinga come to mind.
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These biased pajeets won't mention Gul.

Rashid Khan probably makes the top 3 as well.
 

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