See ball, hit ball

10. Harbhajan Singh, 783 runs in 77 innings; Strike Rate - 143.66

Apart from his primary role as an offspinner, Harbhajan has never been shy of moving up the order or being seen as a pinch-hitter when his side could do with some quick runs. Despite never scoring more than 120 runs in an IPL season, his occasional cameo puts him at 10th place on our list.

9. Sanath Jayasuriya, 768 runs in 30 innings; Strike Rate - 144.36

Almost 40 and at the fag end of his long career, Jayasuriya still managed to set stadiums alight in his own inimitable style for the best part of the first two IPL seasons. His tour de force in the IPL came against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, where he hammered a hundred off 45 balls, still among the fastest in the tournament's history.

8. David Miller, 1480 runs in 60 innings; Strike Rate - 144.39

Miller did not have the best of starts to his IPL career, until he smashed 101* off 38 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore, in what remains one of the most memorable innings in the tournament to date. His simple approach to batting is summed up by his father's mantra, which quoted on television after that innings - "If it's in the V, it's in the tree; and if it's in the arc, it's out of the park"

7. Yusuf Pathan, 2761 runs in 122 innings; Strike Rate - 146.78

Pathan's reputation pre-IPL was largely built on his domestic performances and his debut at the World T20 final a year before. At Rajasthan Royals, he went about quickly acquiring a knack for powerful hitting that changed games in his side's favour. While this reputation has largely carried him over the past few seasons, his presence on this list is a nod to the fact that his ball-striking abilities have never been under question.

6. Kieron Pollard,1958 runs in 97 innings; Strike Rate - 147.99

Pollard's value to his side is reflected by his place among a handful of single-franchise players in the IPL, and it is thanks largely to his ability to clear boundaries at will. Pollard's big-match temperament came to the fore en route to Mumbai's IPL title in 2015, when he followed his 41 off 17 balls with a quickfire 36 off 18 in the final against Super Kings.

5. AB de Villiers, 3257 runs in 109 innings; Strike Rate - 149.33

Among all members on this list, de Villiers has played the most number of games, and his place so high up is testament to his sustained excellence across seasons. Known for his ability to shut opponents out of games with his all-round, "360-degree" game, he has only improved with time, averaging nearly 40 to go with his phenomenal strike rate.

4. Chris Gayle, 3426 runs in 91 innings; Strike Rate - 153.28

Every other "fastest" and "highest" score-related question when it comes to the IPL has Chris Gayle as the answer, and if not for a lean patch in 2014, he could well be on top of this list. After 2235 balls in the IPL, Gayle has scored at over 1.5 runs every ball, and has dispatched almost 1 out of every 4 balls to the boundary. The mind boggles.

3. Virender Sehwag, 2728 runs in 104 innings; Strike Rate - 155.44

Sehwag's see-ball, hit-ball approach was a natural fit for T20s, but he somehow never managed to dictate terms in the same way as he did in the longer formats. His IPL career mirrored this, and apart from occasional spurts of dominance, his strike rate is largely due to the flurry of early-innings boundaries he was well known for.

2. Glenn Maxwell, 918 runs in 43 innings; Strike Rate - 161.61

Kings XI Punjab's captain for the 2017 season is another of those made-for-T20 cricketers who is yet to fully stamp his authority on the tournament. While his crucial contributions have won games for the side in the past few seasons, a consistent spell of match-winning performances is long overdue. Given how he has managed to do so in his international T20 career, it could well be a matter of time.

1. Andre Russell, 574 runs in 25 innings; Strike Rate - 173.41

The man with the highest IPL strike rate is a Jamaican, but not the one you'd have guessed first. Russell has established his place among the world's top T20 allrounders with performances with both bat and ball for franchises across the globe, apart from his exploits for West Indies. Just as he was poised to continue his rich vein of form from the past two seasons, a doping violation-related ban has sidelined him for the next year.