Nos. 19-17: Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Glenn Maxwell

Class of '16: Kohli scored just short of 1000 runs in his ninth year in the IPL © BCCI

No. 19, Virat Kohli

by Dustin Silgardo
So inflated is the status of Indian cricket's current megastar that it is hard to resist the temptation of the pinprick. And in recent years attempts have been made to poke away at what was previously thought to be an airtight certainty: that Kohli is an elite T20 match-winner.

To his record 8004 IPL runs, a whole 1200 clear of the next best, is presented his strike rate of 131.97, which falls in the lower half of the list of top-order batters with 3000-plus IPL runs arranged by strike rate. To his IPL average of 38.66, sixth-best among batters with 3000-plus runs, is presented his lower-than-average strike rate off the first 20 balls. And then, of course, there is the ultimate needle: that for all Kohli's runs and records, he has never actually won an IPL title.

There might be validity to the argument that Kohli gambles too heavily on being able to play the anchor and is thus left with a few too many 25-off-20-ball type innings to his name - the reason, most likely, he is not higher up this list of the top 25 T20 players of all time. But what you should not miss if you're looking for validation of the hipster argument to dismiss Kohli's greatness is how often he actually achieves his set goal of batting deep into an innings and playing the substantial knock. His eight hundreds are, of course, the IPL record, and his 63 scores of 50-plus are second only to David Warner. Thirty-three of those innings led to team wins.

And as fashionable as it might be to ridicule Kohli's Royal Challengers Bengaluru for being trophy-less, they have reached the playoffs nine times, third most, behind Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Four of those runs to the playoffs came during Kohli's nine-year stint as captain, the most famous in the 2016 season, when he scored 973 runs at a strike rate of 152.03 with four hundreds and 11 scores of 50-plus in 16 innings, numbers not even the most determined iconoclast could question.

That Kohli just had his second-most prolific season in 2024, at 35, when criticisms of his methods were at their sharpest, and that he scored his 741 runs (fifth on the all-time list for most prolific seasons) at a strike rate of 154.69, hitting 38 sixes, the joint-most he has ever hit in a season, suggests that any attempts to deflate Kohli's status as an IPL great will be met with his own tireless willingness to re-establish it.

Career high: During his record-setting 2016 season, Kohli had scores of 109, 75 not out and 113 in the space of five days. The last of those knocks, against Kings XI Punjab, he played with stitches in his top hand.

Suresh Raina was an ace batter, bowler and celebrator © BCCI

No. 18, Suresh Raina

by George Binoy
Left-hand batter, electric infielder, athletic boundary rider, handy offspinner, destroyer of coiffures (with his vigorous hair-ruffling when he leapt on team-mates to celebrate a wicket) - Raina was many things, and few cricketers embodied the idea of the perfect IPL player like he did.

He was rarely the main attraction - not in the way Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag or Chris Gayle took top billing - but he was always around. The sort of steadfast team player every captain dreams of having.

Quick runs? Raina's your man. A steady hand at No. 3? Can do that too. A few overs in the middle? No problem. A pick-me-up for the team when morale is low? Look no further. If you had to describe Raina in one word, "effervescent" would be it.

When the IPL was born in 2008, Raina was less than three years old in international cricket. And when he was bought by Chennai Super Kings at the first auction, he received a text from his captain there, MS Dhoni, that said: "Maza aayega dekh." (It'll be fun, wait and see.) As the cricketers from Ranchi and Ghaziabad endeared themselves to a fiercely proud southern city, Dhoni grew into CSK's thala, and Raina, his trusted lieutenant in four IPL title-winning campaigns and two in the Champions League Twenty20, became their chinna thala (loosely translated: junior chieftain).

While his skill against the short stuff at high pace was often scrutinised, Raina reeled off 400-plus runs in seven consecutive IPL seasons, from 2008 to 2014. To date only Shikhar Dhawan has equalled that consistency, between 2016 and 2022, when 400-run seasons were much more commonplace.

From 2008 to 2018, Raina did not miss a game for CSK, playing 158 consecutive matches (they were banned for two seasons in 2016 and 2017). It is the longest streak in the T20 game, one that might be broken only by Virat Kohli in the foreseeable future.

It is fitting, then, that Raina's other nickname is Mr IPL.

Career high: In 2014, Raina played an innings at the Wankhede from the future of the T20 game. Eighty-seven runs, all but three of them off the 18 boundaries he hit in his 25 balls: some of the cleanest ball-striking you'll ever see. Though his team lost that qualifier, Raina was unstoppable that night, like the Terminator sent back in time - his powerplay score in that innings still remains the highest IPL score made at a 300-plus strike rate.

Glenn's your uncle: no hand is the wrong hand when you're a switch hitter © BCCI

No. 17, Glenn Maxwell

by Alan Gardner
An audacious batter, wily spinner and gun fielder, Maxwell might have been designed specifically to be a T20 star. His rise was rapid, going from relative unknown to IPL MVP within the space of a couple of years. And while he has not enjoyed quite the same level of team success - particularly during his long-standing but luckless association with Melbourne Stars - there is no doubt about the level of demand for his skills on the franchise circuit.

Maxwell actually played for Melbourne Renegades in the inaugural BBL season, before making a couple of appearances in the 2012 IPL for Delhi Daredevils. An explosive stint with Hampshire, after being spotted playing club cricket for South Wilts, then helped pave the way for his Australia debut later that year - which was followed by a US$1 million payday when Mumbai Indians swooped him up at the IPL auction. While his time in blue didn't work out, Kings XI Punjab were still willing to drop seven figures to recruit him for the 2014 season - and they were repaid handsomely as Maxwell's 552 runs (third on the list) at 187.75 took them all the way to the final. He couldn't add to his tally as Kings missed out on the trophy, but he did take the MVP award home with him.

With his scything reverse hits and fence-clearing power, Maxwell is one of the most devastating middle-order batters in the game (although it's worth noting that he has two hundreds to his name while opening). Capable of taking down pace and spin-bowling alike, he has thrived in conditions as diverse as those found in Australia, England and India - not to mention the UAE, where he produced another 500-run IPL season in 2021, his first for Royal Challengers Bengaluru after being signed for $1.95 million. But again silverware remained elusive.

Career high: Perhaps not much could make up for the twin disappointment of captaining Melbourne Stars to back-to-back BBL final defeats in 2018-19 and 2019-20. But Maxwell does have a BBL accolade that will take some beating - his 154 not out off 64 balls, against Hobart Hurricanes in 2021-22, remains the highest score in the competition's history.

Stats in factfile sidebars are for all T20 matches, minus internationals, 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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