Glenn Maxwell chooses his top 5 T20 players

Maxwell was asked to pick 5 players for T20 cricket by ICC.

Australia’s big-hitting batter Glenn Maxwell is arguably one of the best 20-over players in the history of this pretty young format. Recently, in an interaction with the ICC, Maxwell was asked to name his picks of the five best T20 players.

Maxwell went for choices that would cover all the bases on the cricket field and could give a tough contest to any five-a-side T20 team in the world. He picked a brilliant leg-spinner, a legendary wicketkeeper, two top-class all-rounders, and one of the fastest bowlers ever to play the game.

Maxwell’s no.1 pick was Afghanistan leggie, Rashid Khan. The 23-year-old, Rashid has already achieved a number of feats in his career, across all formats of the game and is the only bowler to take four wickets in four balls in a T20I match.

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In 281 T20s, Rashid has 388 wickets at an average of 17.54 and a strike rate of 16.60. He is no mug with the bat, scoring 1288 runs. The leggie also has 95 wickets in 51 T20I matches at an average of 12.63 with a strike rate of 12.10, with best bowling figures of 5/3.

Maxwell’s next pick was West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell who has been part of the Caribbean team’s two T20 World Cup wins. In his T20 career, Russell has played 382 games, scoring 6,405 runs at a strike rate of 169.66. He has also scalped up 340 wickets with best figures of 5/15.

In T20Is, Russell has played 62 games, scoring 716 runs and scalping 36 wickets. West Indies would hope that he is fit during the T20 World Cup, as they aim for a third title.

The Australian batter then went for his arch-rival Ben Stokes, who has played 148 T20 matches, Stokes has scored 2,865 runs at an average of 24.91 and a strike rate of 135.07. The all-rounder has also picked 86 wickets at 31.03 apiece.

One of the cleanest strikers of the ball and good enough with the ball to use as an opening bowler, Stokes has played 34 T20Is, scoring 442 runs and scalping 28 wickets. However, he will not be seen in the upcoming T20 World Cup as he is on a mental health break from cricket.

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He then named Shaun Tait, a cricketer who won the 2007 World Cup with the Australian team and is considered to be one of the fastest ever to play the game. If his career had not been marred by injuries, Tait could have been an all-time great.

Despite being beset by injuries, Tait regularly clocked up speeds of over 150 km/h. He played 171 T20 matches in his career picking up 218 wickets at an average of 22.41 apiece.

Last, but not least, Maxwell named the great Adam Gilchrist in his five picks for T20 cricket. “Unerring with the gloves and smashing with the bat, watching Gilchrist in full flow was a ride-will of thrill," said Maxwell to icc-cricket.com.

Gilchrist made a mark on T20 cricket playing 102 games, scoring 2622 runs at a strike rate of 140.28 with three centuries.

(IANS inputs)