Cricket carnival begins in India and this year IPL Twenty 20 is expected to break all previous viewership in post-pandemic. After two seasons lull of T20 cricket, pundits and fans are fully charged up for the 2022 edition of the fast-paced enthralling games. Since its inception in 2005, T20 has produced some of the greatest players or existing players have shown how they could change gears for the shorter format and create a fandom of millions.

You might have your own favorite, be it batsman, bowler, fielder, or captain, but when Betway asked Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bishop, Aakash Chopra, and others to name the greatest T20 player, the difference of opinion was pretty obvious. When you watch the video, available on the Betway website and YouTube, you will get to know about the most consistent T20 player, according to Betway ambassador Kevin Pietersen.    

Commentators Ian Thorpe and Aakash Chopra, South African cricket players Lungi Ngidi, and Rassie van der Dussen share their bests across five categories. Mumbai Indian is once again the favorite for the ongoing IPL 15, but the outcome could be something else. The core element of the T20 is surprises, dark horses, and setbacks, so the list of greats also has surprises as it is not just the winnability and statistics but popularity and fair play that makes one the great.  

When asked to name the most consistent T20 run-scorer of all time, all respondents named Virat Kohli.

“Virat Kohli just seems to be always making runs,” said Rassie van der Dussen in the video.

“Sort of simple technique, classical techniques, which applies in Test cricket, but he [Virat] has also the power game,” added said Rassie highlighting qualities that make Virat the most consistent T20 player.

For Aakash Chopra, “He [Virat] actually changed the perception completely that 30s are the new 50s in T20 cricket.”

“He was averaging 50 for a very long time,” adds Chopra.

Virat scored 3296 runs in 97 T20 internationals with an average of 51.5 and a strike rate of over 137. He scored above 50 in 30 matches. If you see the IPL stats of Virat, in 209 matches he scored 6336 runs, averaging 37.5 with a strike rate of above 130. Well, statistically he is among the best, but when it comes to winning, his IPL team, RCB, never won the trophy so far, and the match-winning rate is 48%.  

Well, when it comes to the best hitter of the ball, the unanimous choice was the six-hitter machine, Chris Gayle. The 42-year old Caribbean hurricane has scored over 14K runs, a T20 record, including 22 centuries, justifiably nicknamed the most destructive T20 player.

“Nobody, I think, comes close to Chris Gayle,” says Chopra.

Praising Gayle’s powerful and clean shots, Kevin Pietersen says, “The pick-up over mid-on, just the flat bat smack. It is so dismissive.”

“Looking at him from the top of your run-up, it looks like he is standing right next to you. One swing and it is out of the stadium,” says Lungi Ngidi.

Echoing the same Ian Thorpe said, “He [Gayle] changed and helped to evolve the way T20 batting was, and that’s why I think he is the GOAT of T20 batting.”

This format of cricket is highly tilted in favor of batsmen, but some bowlers earned their name by using their smart bowling tricks and changing the outcome of the game. When every player is preconditioned to hit massive sixes, spinners look like sacrificial lambs. But there are a few spinners who were very effective not just in conceding minimum runs but picking wickets at the crucial moments.

According to Kevin Pietersen, Sunil Narine was one of the most difficult spinners to face, because of his variations. I had no idea which way it was going, he added. 

On why Lasith Malinga is considered the genius of the T20 format, Aakash Chopra says, “It’s like going to a foreign country, maybe I go to China and everybody speaks a different language, and I find myself completely at sea.”

 “You have no answer to the question that you have been asked,” he says adding, “Somebody bowling a maiden super-over; I mean it takes some doing.”   

Recalling the IPL moment, Chopra says, “He actually bowled a slow Yorker, on the last ball of the 20th over to win the IPL title. I mean, who would have thought that this was possible.”

Echoing the same Ian Thorpe says, “I remember that over clearly actually. It was unfair really.”

Kevin Pietersen considers Lasith Malinga as the best death bowler, saying, “as good as it gets in death bowling.”

Praising the mastery class of Malinga, Rassie says, “I have never faced anything like that before in my life.”

“Those Yorkers were absolutely crucial and deadly,” says Lungi Ngidi.

When it comes to naming the best fielder the unanimous choice was none other than AB de Villiers.

“I am not sure that too many are better in any area of the field than AB de Villiers,” says Ian Thorpe.

“Some of the catches and the runouts he inflicted were, yeah, truly mind-boggling,” says Rassie.

“I think the presence that he had on the field, and just what he brought to the team as well, automatically we raised our games,” says Lungi Ngidi.