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The greatest T20 player: Lasith Malinga or Andre Russell?

A cunning strike bowler or a menacing allrounder - who's your pick to make the final?

Semi-final time. The player with more votes in the match-up progresses.
Voting closes at 6.30am GMT on Tuesday, May 12*.
Lasith Malinga
Wickets 390 Ave 19.69 ER 7.08
Malinga's slingy action, cunning changes of pace, and pinpoint yorkers at the death put him in pole position to be considered the best in the format. Among fast bowlers with at least 200 T20 wickets, no one averages better than his 19.69. Second to Dwayne Bravo on the wicket-taking charts in T20 cricket, Malinga is the only bowler with over 100 wickets in T20Is. Half of his 390 wickets have come for the Mumbai Indians, and he's the leading wicket-taker in the IPL. He took the most wickets in the 2011 edition, and followed that up with a Player-of-the-Tournament performance in the franchise's first title win, in the Champions League T20. He has since gone on to win four IPL titles with Mumbai Indians. In 2014, he led Sri Lanka to the T20 World Cup title, taking up the captaincy midway into the tournament. Many would have thought his T20 career was on the wane when he was appointed Mumbai Indians' bowling mentor in 2018 after going unsold at the IPL auction. Come 2019, Malinga took a wicket off the final ball in a one-run thriller in the IPL final, and later that year conjured a magical four in four for his country.
Andre Russell
Runs 5365 Ave 26.95 SR 171.29
Wickets 291 Ave 25.88 ER 8.27
A power-hitter, hit-the-deck bowler, and gun fielder, Russell is a serial winner in T20 cricket. The allrounder has won the T20 World Cup twice, CPL twice with Jamaica Tallawahs in 2013 and 2016, BPL in 2016-17 with Dhaka Dynamites and with Rajshahi Royals in 2019-20, IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, BBL with Sydney Thunder in 2016, and PSL with Islamabad United in 2016. A high-impact player, which also leaves him injury-prone, Russell won the Player-of-the-Tournament prize in IPL 2015 and 2019, CPL in 2016, and most recently at the BPL, where he led the Royals to the title, and was also the Player of the Final. His best all-round individual display - and probably the best for any player - came in CPL 2018, when he followed a hat-trick with a 40-ball century - the fastest in the tournament - against Trinbago Knight Riders. It is his ability to hit sixes at any point that stands out: Russell is 52nd on the T20 run-scoring charts, but is already in fifth spot on the most sixes list. His strike rate of 171.29 is the highest by a distance among batsmen with over 1000 T20 runs (the next-best is Colin de Grandhomme's 161.23).
This poll has ended. Here's the final result:
*The deadline had been extended and the poll was reset due to a technical glitch that didn't allow many readers to vote. All votes have been considered when tallying the final results.
Keep track of the greatest T20 player bracket here.