Twenty20 International’s top ten strikers

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Glenn Maxwell - England vs Australia

Twenty20 International cricket has brought increasing attention and focus on a batsman’s strike-rate as a measure of the impact they have on the frantic short format.

For the purposes of this list we have looked at the top ten fastest scorers in Twenty20 Internationals who have faced 250 balls or more in the format*.

We restricted the list further by excluding players who have retired from international cricket.

10 Chris Gayle- 143.09

Chris Gayle has been a force to be reckoned with since T20 cricket first began to take root in international cricket so it is no surprise to see him on this list.

Gayle has two T20I centuries to his name and both cam in the World T20 and both were scored at a strike-rate of over 200.

9 Najibullah Zadran – 143.69

Edging out the Universe Boss himself by 0.60 runs per hundred balls Najibullah Zadran may not have the profile of Afghanistan stars like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi but he has made a valuable contribution to the country’s rise through the T20I rankings.

His unbeaten 48 against the West Indies in the 2016 World T20 gave Afghanistan an historic victory over the eventual tournament winners.

8 Shafiqullah – 146.12

Another of Afghanistan’s finishers Shafiqullah has struggled for consistency in his performances with bat in hand, averaging just over 16 but when he hits them they stay hit as he demonstrated when he hit a double hundred in a domestic T20 tournament in Afghanistan.

England fans might remember how the lower-order batsman gave them a big scare in the 2016 World T20 with a quickfire 35 off just 20 balls in Delhi.

7 Daren Sammy – 147.48

He may not have played for the West Indies since 2016 but the former skipper has not officially given up international cricket and has maintained a strike-rate that puts him among the quickest scorers in the short format.

Sammy proved himself an expert at rapid 20s and 30s for the Windies with his 34 off 13 balls against Australia at the 2014 World T20 a prime example of a match-winning cameo.

6 Lokesh Rahul – 151.19

Lokesh ‘KL’ Rahul has emphatically shrugged off the Test specialist tag with a stunning start to his T20I career that sees him average 47.50 in sixteen matches for India.

He became the third India batsman to blast his way to a T20I hundred when he aggregated an unbeaten 110 against the West Indies in Florida in August 2016.

5 Thisara Perera – 153.15

The patron saint of Sri Lanka’s lost causes, Thisara Perera has built a reputation as a tenacious batsman capable of heroic feats towards the back-end of an innings.

Both of his T20I fifties have come in the last year but few of his innings had the impact of his unbeaten 47 off 19 balls in the chase against Pakistan in Lahore on September 13 2017 that kept the World XI in that series.

4 Aaron Finch – 154.30

The Australia opener and new T20I skipper is nothing if not urgent at the crease and his ability to take the game away from the opposition in a hurry make him a dangerous opponent.

Finch became the first Australian to bring up a T20I century against England at the Rose Bowl in 2013 and the 156 he ended on that day remains the highest score in the format at international level.

3 Evin Lewis – 160.36

World XI v WI

Seen as the man to take over the mantle of top-order destroyer for the West Indies from Gayle, Lewis can take almost any attack apart on his day.

Lewis scored a hundred in the same match as Rahul did in Florida in 2016, it is the only time players from either side have scored a ton in a T20I. He is the second West Indies batsman to score a hundred in T20Is after Gayle.

2 Colin Munro

The Durban-born Black Caps blaster Colin Munro is without a doubt among the most dangerous batsmen in the short format of the game.

He is the the first and so far only player to score three T20I hundreds, remarkably they came within the space of one year of each other the first coming on January 6th 2017 against Bangladesh, the second in November 2017 against India and the third on January 3rd 2018 against the West Indies.

1 Glenn Maxwell – 165.44

Making the extraordinary seem commonplace is all in a day’s work for the man dubbed ‘the big show’ Glenn Maxwell.

White cricket balls tremble at Maxi’s name but England experienced him at the peak of his powers in Hobart in February of this year when he hit his second T20I hundred to go with the 146 not out he struck against Sri Lanka in 2016.

*Stats correct as of 30/06/2018

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