Top T20 cricketers to watch: stars of the short format

The first ever T20 cricket match was played out on June 13, 2003 between English sides Hampshire Hawks and Sussex Sharks at the Rose Bowl.

The high intensity shortened format of the game quickly became a hit with fans and players around the world, with the first T20 International (T20I) match being played between Australia and New Zealand in 2005.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s governing body, staged the first T20 World Cup in South Africa two years later with India being crowned the inaugural winners.

That helped propel the game to even greater popularity, as in 2008 the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched and the game was taken to a whole new stratosphere of glamour and glitz.

The advent of T20 has seen a new breed of cricketers emerge: from powerful batters redefining the boundary limits, destructive death bowlers and all-rounders adapted to the athletic, all-action nature of the format.

Here’s a look at some of the best T20 players in world cricket:

Virat Kohli: king of Instagram, slayer of sixes

Virat Kohli stands at a height of 175 centimeters (5 foot 9 inches), around average for an Indian man. But that’s about the only normal sized stat you’ll find associated with the batting superstar.

Simply put, Virat Kohli is a sensation both on and off the cricket field.

To give an indication of the scale of his stardom, Virat Kohli is the most followed Indian person on Instagram with over 259 million followers. That is nearly three times more than actress Priyanka Chopra, his nearest challenger.

Small wonder then that virtually anything Virat Kohli does becomes a news event; a change to his haircut, a trim his beard style or a new tattoo will see the internet blow up.

Virat Kohli stats: batting breakdown

But it is with a cricket bat in his hand that Delhi-born player really makes his impact felt.

Virat Kohli made his debut for India against Sri Lanka in 2008 and has gone on to score more than 25000 runs in international cricket, sending the ball to the boundary ropes more than 2500 times and smashing no less than 282 sixes.

Such is his prowess in the short form game, Virat Kohli has drawn comparison to Sachin Tendulkar.

In 278 One Day International (ODI) matches to date, Virat Kohli has scored 13,001 runs, an average of 57.53 per innings: the most for any batter with over 6000 runs. By comparison, Sachin Tendulkar amassed 18,426 runs from his 463 matches – an average knock of 44.83 runs.

When it comes to the shorter format, Virat Kohli holds the record for the most runs scored in international T20 cricket, compiling 4008 runs in 115 matches at an average of 52.73.

Without doubt, Kohli holds the upper hand in the battle against bowlers, hitting 356 fours and an incredible 117 sixes. On the flip side, he has only been dismissed four a duck on four occasions in an international T20 match.

Ellyse Perry cricket and football: the all-round all-rounder

In July 2007, Ellyse Perry became the youngest cricketer ever to play for Australia when she made her international debut at just 16-years old in an ODI against New Zealand.

That was before the all-rounder had even made an appearance at senior level domestically.

But that is only half the story of Ellyse Perry’s sporting prowess.

Two weeks after making her bow in international cricket, Ellyse Perry represented the Australia national football team against Hong Kong on August 4, 2007. A remarkable sporting double achieved three months short of her seventeenth birthday.

Perry quickly began establishing herself in both sports, winning her first World T20 in 2010 as Australia pipped New Zealand for the title. Perry was named ‘Player of the Final’ after taking 3 wickets for 18 runs.

Then in 2011, Ellyse Perry was called up to Matildas squad for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, thus becoming the only person ever to have played for Australia at a football and a cricket World Cup.

The highlight of her tournament was a superb left footed strike from the edge of the box in Australia’s 3-1 quarter final defeat to Sweden.

However, after winning 18 caps primarily as a defender for Australia Ellyse Perry decided to focus solely on her cricket career in 2016, as the demands of juggling both became too much.

Football’s loss was cricket’s gain as Perry helped establish Australia as the dominant force in the women’s game.

Ellyse Perry is an all rounder whose right arm fast bowling is used to devastating effect in T20 cricket. In 142 international matches, Perry has claimed 123 wickets. Twenty of those have been caught behind by the wicketkeeper – more than any other bowler has managed, and testament to her fiery pace. Indeed, the stats show Ellyse Perry as bowling the fastest ever ball in women’s cricket. The Australian was clocked at 130.5 kph (81 mph) in a Women’s Premier League game for Royal Challengers Bangalore against UP Warriorz in March 2023.

Allied to her bowling is her batting prowess. Perry is normally deployed as a middle order batter in T20 format, scoring 1627 runs in her 87 innings to date. In all forms of cricket, Ellyse Perry has scored 6165 runs for Australia and taken 323 wickets. A truly phenomenal sporting talent and why she deserves the moniker of being ‘the all-round all rounder’.:

Rashid Khan: Afghanistan's googly bowling genius

As a kid, Rashid Khan idolised Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and modelled his bowling action on the legendary all-rounder. It certainly paid dividends as the leg spinner has emerged as the first true cricket superstar hailing from Afghanistan.

Rashid Khan made his T20 debut against Zimbabwe in October 2015 and became the fastest cricketer to reach 100 wickets in T20 internationals, taking just 53 appearances for Afghanistan to reach the milestone.

Undoubtedly the biggest weapon in Rashid Khan’s bowling is his googly delivery.

A googly in cricket is a ball bowled by right handed leg spinners. However, instead of turning towards the off side like a conventional leg spin delivery, instead deviates towards the leg side of a right handed batter.

In Rashid Khan’s case, his googly deliverable is virtually undetectable on the part of the batter as his high arm action and speed make it tough to pick.

It must be noted that the Khan can also contribute with the bat, having reached the half century mark five times in One Day Internationals.

Rashid Khan has become a prized asset for any T20 team, recently helping MI New York win the inaugural edition of the USA’s T20 cricket league, Major League Cricket.

Khan took three wickets from his four overs as New York beat the Seattle Orcas at Grand Prairie Field in Dallas.