The greatest T20 player: Andre Russell or Rohit Sharma?
Who's going to be the winner in our readers' all-time greatest T20 player bracket?
ESPNcricinfo staff
14-May-2020
From 32, we are down to two. Who's going to be the winner in our readers' all-time greatest T20 player bracket?
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, the CPL twice with Jamaica Tallawahs in 2013 and 2016, the BPL in 2016-17 with Dhaka Dynamites and with Rajshahi Royals in 2019-20, the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, the BBL with Sydney Thunder in 2016, and the 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 the 2015 and 2019 IPL, the 2016 CPL, 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 the 2018 CPL, 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).
The most successful captain in the IPL, Rohit Sharma has led Mumbai Indians to four titles, and won a record five in all. He was the first Indian to score a T20 hundred, making a 45-ball 101 not out in a total of 145 for 5 way back in 2007, and was part of India's T20 World Cup success later the same year. His 2773 runs in T20Is are only surpassed by Virat Kohli, and his four hundreds are the most for any player. Sharma is also the third-highest run-getter in the IPL. A batsman who usually builds and then accelerates once in, Sharma has had success batting both at the top of the order and in the middle. He also has a hat-trick in the IPL, though it's been over five years since he has bowled in a T20 game.
This poll has ended. Here's the final result:
You can check how our readers voted in earlier match-ups, and also our staff picks, here.