T20 is the way to go forward for the ICC to get more and more teams, the smaller nations involved in the game. The format’s short, crisp nature, and the frequent fours and sixes makes it entertaining and easy to follow even.
Batting has never been easier than it became once T20 cricket came on. Batters have now specialized in the shortest format, and while some attained greatness in two or all three, the elite T20 batters are being chased by every franchise league now.
Today, we look at the 5 greatest T20 batsmen of all time:
Chris Gayle
It is tough to look beyond Chris Gayle as the most entertaining T20 batsman ever. With 14562 runs, the ‘Universe Boss’ is the leading T20 run-scorer of all time, and it is likely to stay that way for many, many years.
Gayle, who’s played for over two dozen teams, has hammered 22 centuries and 88 fifties in T20 cricket with a record 1056 sixes! Gayle is a two-time T20 World Cup winner with West Indies.
Kieron Pollard
While Gayle became a behemoth as a T20 opener, Pollard excelled at a much more difficult task – finishing. Pollard has played the most number of T20 matches, 612 at the time of writing, gaining experience of all sorts of situations and conditions.
A five-time winner with Mumbai Indians and a one-time T20 world champion with WI, Pollard, despite batting lower down the order, is the third-highest run-scorer in the format, with 11871 runs, averaging 31 and strike rate of 15.68 – the best in the top 10 T20 run-scorers.
AB de Villiers
Although AB de Villiers is the 10th highest run-scorer in T20 cricket, with 9424 runs, his strike rate of 150.13 is only bettered by Pollard in the top 10 scorers. Unarguably, the best 360-degree batsman, De Villiers possessed elite, maybe unimaginable powers, to hit a ball to any part of the ground, smartly maneuvering with the fielders. Although de Villiers bowed out with a T20 WC or IPL trophy, the magic he unfurled and the moments he gave to the fans will be the most remembered.
Virat Kohli
The first thought of T20 batting in a viewer’s mind is mostly slam-bang power-hitting. It is true. At times, though, a batsman needs to rein himself in, settle down first, and assess the situation before going all berserk. Nobody does it better than Virat Kohli.
The 33-year-old himself has admitted to being as capable of hitting sixes as some of the others T20 greats do. But he would also himself know that there is perhaps nobody better than him when it comes to run-chases, in particular.
Kohli holds the record of most runs in a single IPL season (973 in 2016), and has been twice awarded the Player of the Tournament in T20 World Cup (2014, 2016). 10902 T20 runs, average 40, strike rate 132, 80 half-centuries – the numbers just shout greatness. And to think, there is more to come from King in the coming years.
David Warner
The pocket dynamo at the top of the order, Warner decided the fate of many games within the first half of the innings. The Aussie opener has amassed 10870 runs so far in T20 cricket, at an average of 38 and strike rate of 141. Along with 8 T20 hundreds, Warner has notched up 91 fifties in the format. Warner is an IPL winner, leading SRH to the title in 2016, and was the Man of the Tournament in Australia’s 2021 T20 World Cup triumph in the UAE.
