Nos. 25-23: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Dan Christian

Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 49 wickets at a strike rate of 14.4 and an economy of 7.2 in the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons © BCCI

Twenty-five years into the 21st century, we're ranking the greatest players in the game's most popular format. Here, counting down from 25, are the cricketers we think are and have been the finest in the history of T20 leagues so far.

No. 25, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

by Karthik Krishnaswamy
One-hundred-and-fifty-two bowlers have bowled at least 1000 balls in the first six overs of T20 innings. Of all of them, only one - Mohammad Hafeez - has a better economy rate than Bhuvneshwar in that phase. And if powerplay bowling was only an occasional gig for Hafeez - he did it 112 times in 374 T20 games, usually when matched up against a left-hand opener - it's Bhuvneshwar's primary job. No matter what the weather or the pitch looks like, no matter which pair of batters opens against his side, it's almost always Bhuvneshwar who takes the new ball at its newest; he has bowled the first over in 225 of 294 T20 innings.

There are others - Shaheen Shah Afridi or Trent Boult, for example - who do blast open top orders far more frequently, but no new-ball bowler has bowled with Bhuvneshwar's hypnotic control of swing for as long as he's done. There's a fastidiousness to every step of his action, everything geared towards moving the ball just this much, in this direction, from there to there, with outswingers that offer too much width or inswingers that stray onto the pads rare enough to be collector's items. Not blessed with the pace of an Afridi or a Mitchell Starc, he rarely ventures into their hyper-attacking full lengths, choosing instead to hammer away on a good length and keep forcing batters to respect him. Attack me? No chance.

It was a testament to his quality that two of his greatest new-ball displays came on wretched days for his bowling colleagues. When Chris Gayle's awe-inspiring 175 not out powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to 263 against Pune Warriors in 2013, Bhuvneshwar somehow conceded just eight runs in three powerplay overs. Then, in the 2018 IPL final, he made Shane Watson play and miss repeatedly while conceding just nine in three powerplay overs - four of them came via overthrows; having survived that examination, Watson went on to pummel an unbeaten, match-winning 117.

As his career progressed, Bhuvneshwar has developed tools that have made him exceedingly useful outside the powerplay too, most notably a yorker and a slower knuckleball that he deploys to telling effect at the death (overs 17-20); no one in the IPL has bowled more balls in that phase, and he took more wickets (27) in those overs than anyone else across the 2016 and 2017 seasons, while being more economical than both Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga.

Career high: Bhuvneshwar won back-to-back purple caps for most wickets in the IPL in 2016 and 2017, and Sunrisers Hyderabad made the playoffs in both seasons, winning their maiden title in 2016. That year's final was billed as a contest between SRH's bowlers and Royal Challengers Bangalore's batters, and Bhuvneshwar played a key role in keeping Gayle and Virat Kohli from running away to victory. They put on 114 in just 10.3 overs in a chase of 209, but Bhuvneshwar only went for 11 in his two powerplay overs, with eight of those runs coming off edged boundaries. Then, coming back with RCB needing 37 in the last three overs, he only went for 16 (two leg-byes) in his last two, as SRH wrapped up an eight-run win.

Born to Blast: Afridi played the first of his T20 matches in the T20 Cup for Kent in 2004, and he bowed out in the 2017 semi-final, playing for Hampshire © Getty Images

No. 24, Shahid Afridi

by Danyal Rasool
Playing against Shahid Afridi in T20 cricket was perhaps an inherent disadvantage. While cricketers around the world learned to adapt to the format when it was new, Afridi did not wait until T20 came along to play a kind of cricket presciently tailored for it.

He was around in the embryonic stages as the T20 Blast birthed cricket's most consequential revolution, doing things that entranced as well as infuriated. He placed a low value on his wicket at a time when the very notion was considered absurd, and moved around the order when batting positions were fairly rigid. He bowled spin when it was feared T20 would leave spinners with no hiding place. At this remove, it feels the format bent to his skill set rather than the other way around; most power-hitters or spinners with extreme variations would be considered borderline revolutionary two decades ago. The closest reference point would have been Afridi.

T20 cricket Afridi didn't play was scarcely worth playing. He turned up in 230 T20 matches, not counting internationals, across eight countries and 26 teams, never seeming to go out of demand, because of his irrepressible ability as a game changer. An eye for the big occasion has burnished his reputation; never an accumulator of huge scores in individual T20 innings, he produced just 11 half-centuries in nearly two decades, four of them in the international game. Two of those came in the semi-final and final of Pakistan's victorious 2009 World Cup campaign.

In 2008 he was bought by the free-spending Deccan Chargers in the IPL for US$ 675,000 - more than twice what AB de Villiers went for at the time. It didn't work out; they finished bottom of the table. This was a pattern. Afridi's career was strikingly barren of T20 silverware: just two BPL titles to show.

Afridi, though, was never the goblin who greedily eyed up treasures; it was the style that mattered, and fittingly for a player nothing seems to be able to age, it is the flair that earns him T20 sporting immortality.

Career high: On a relatively flat surface, Afridi used his full set of variations to produce both the most economical and productive spell in the final of the BPL in 2012, his 3 for 23 helping Dhaka Gladiators coast to the title.

Two wickets, two catches, 38 runs and Bob's yer uncle: Christian gets his hands on the BBL trophy in 2019 © Getty Images

No. 23, Dan Christian

by Tristan Lavalette
Christian is one of the most decorated players in T20 franchise cricket, having won nine titles for eight different teams. He was one of the first players to successfully navigate the T20 circuit, becoming a key operator for multiple teams.

His record and longevity are legend. At 41, Christian even filled in briefly for injury-ravaged Sydney Thunder in the last BBL season. And such is his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, he's often referred to on the circuit as "Siri".

He started out as a bit of a slogger who could also bowl sharp seam. He was a prototype for T20 cricket but it was still a shock when he received a $900,000 IPL contract in 2011. It changed the trajectory of his career and he gradually honed his game to become a T20 specialist.

It wasn't just his all-round skills that made him so sought after by franchises all over the world. Many players are capable of belligerent batting, taking wickets and deft fielding; what made Christian stand out and become so valuable was his ability to adapt to specific roles.

With Brisbane Heat in the early days of the BBL, he mostly batted at No. 4 before shifting to five and six when he moved to Hobart Hurricanes in 2015-16, while he gradually learned how to master batting in the middle overs. He also had a decent amount of success in the finisher role in the IPL.

With the ball, he usually fulfilled the allrounder's traditional role of bowling through the different phrases, but he never let himself be pigeonholed. He was often a middle-overs bowler in the IPL, while during his long career at Nottinghamshire he was sometimes utilised as a frontline seam bowler. After he dedicated himself solely to T20 cricket - his last first-class match was in 2018 - Christian increasingly focused on slower balls and yorkers to become a reliable option at the death.

His ability to perform a role and contribute to team success demonstrated that his value went beyond stats. As something of a glue guy, the intangibles he provided opened up new philosophies on how to build a T20 franchise team.

Career high: The Melbourne franchises fought for the BBL title in the 2018-19 final, where Renegades scored a miraculous 13-run win over Stars. It was Christian's calm execution under pressure with bat and ball that proved the difference. He ensured Renegades saw out their overs after a top-order collapse, finishing unbeaten on 38 from 30 on a tricky surface. He then took two catches, two game-changing wickets in the 18th over, and bowled a nerveless final over to seal the deal.

Stats in factfile sidebars are for all T20 matches and current as up to the start of the 2025 IPL. League wins cover tournaments of four teams and above, and include seasons where the player appeared in at least one match for the winning team

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