Nos. 10-8: Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kieron Pollard

Dwayne Bravo has won five CPL titles, four with Trinbago Knight Riders and one with St Kitts and Nevis Patriots © Getty Images

No. 10, Dwayne Bravo

by Andrew Miller
A fluid blur of limbs, floating through the crease with rare balance and agility, showcasing the lithe athleticism of your typical West Indian fast bowler. But Bravo's genius lay in what happened next. Who could begin to second-guess his output as that magical whirring arm reached its apex, and the random-number generator kicked in? One minute, he'd be hurrying his quarry for pace with a 135kph bail-trimmer; the next, he'd cut the motor early and splut a 100kph powderpuff yorker through those same bamboozled defences. All of it done with a smile, an aeroplane-armed celebration, and as often as not, a "Champion" dance too. In a box-office format, DJ Bravo was T20's original action hero.

Bravo did what he does for so long that he went from defying categorisation to defining the terms by which his successors will be judged. He was a good enough batter to make two Test hundreds in Australia, and yet his place in history will be determined by his endeavours between overs 17 and 20 of the T20 format, in which period he claimed 322 of his 631 career wickets (comfortably a record) and scored 2972 of his 6970 runs (at a strike-rate of 167), which underlined his mastery of that most fraught period of the game.

Before Bravo, slower balls were a gimmick served up by "freaks" such as Ian Harvey, rather than an essential part of even the fastest bowler's armoury; before Bravo, teams tended to muddle through the back end of an innings, often by holding back a handful of overs from their strike bowlers, rather than turn to an outright specialist for such a role. In between whiles, he offered typically livewire fielding too. His 275 catches place him third in T20s, behind Kieron Pollard and David Miller.

Bravo's 20 years at the highest level spanned almost the entire history of T20 cricket: his West Indies debut, in Auckland in February 2006, came in just the fifth T20I ever contested. By the time the IPL came along in 2008, he was already a key member of perhaps the first true T20 dynasty - the great Trinidad and Tobago team that dominated the infamous Stanford 20/20 and went on to hold its own at the equally short-lived Champions League. By the time of his retirement, he was synonymous with another, the mighty Chennai Super Kings, with whom he won three of his 17 global titles across a ten-year span.

Career high: For all his success abroad, Bravo's pleasure in bringing his glory back home was self-evident, not least when he captained Trinbago Knight Riders to back-to-back CPL titles in 2017 and 2018.

Shane Watson scored 472 runs at a strike rate of 151.7 and took 17 wickets at an economy of 7 in Rajasthan Royals' 2008 IPL win © BCCI

No. 9, Shane Watson

by Shamya Dasgupta
Big, burly, barrel-chested… and breakable. Watson did remarkable things across formats over his injury-ravaged career, but when T20 came around in the mid-2000s, it seemed the format was perfect for him. He could hit, after all. Not slog. Not many batters crafted big T20 innings with that kind of clean down-the-ground striking. And not many from his country could bowl reverse swing and surprise bouncers quite as well as him at the time.

But while he may have looked a natural, Watson said he had to work to develop into the T20 batter he became. "I was actually a top-order batsman who couldn't really hit that much," he said in April 2013. "I guess I was able to add another gear to my batting in the short forms of the game. Now, with T20 coming along, it's really suited my game."

Over 343 T20s, in every part of the world, he averaged 29.3 with the bat, going at a strike rate of 138.3 for his 8821 runs. Throw in the 216 wickets at an economy rate of 7.9, and you have a superstar.

The other Australian Shane, Warne that is, recognised this superstar aspect when he picked Watson for Rajasthan Royals when the IPL was launched in 2008. Of his emergence as one of the key members of that title-winning team, Watson said, "[The year] 2008 was a big catalyst in my career." ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats rated Watson the MVP of the tournament.

In the IPL, with Royals, CSK and RCB, Watson hit 3874 runs, struck at 138, and averaged 31. He was your man for big games. Three times he was Player of the Tournament in a T20 league: the 2008 and 2013 IPLs, and the 2019 PSL. In playoff matches as well, he was the Player of the Match thrice: 2008 IPL semi-final, 2018 IPL final, and 2019 PSL qualifier.

Career high: His title-winning hundred for CSK in the 2018 IPL and many BBL, CPL and PSL performances come close, but Watson was never better than in the 2008 IPL semi-final for Royals against Delhi Daredevils. He first hit 52 from 29 balls and then nipped out the top three - Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan - to finish with figures of 3 for 10 from three overs.

Kieron Pollard: aka the T20 godfather © Getty Images

No. 8, Kieron Pollard

by Matt Roller
Pollard was labelled a mercenary early in his career but will be remembered as a pioneer. Raised by a single mother on a Trinidad housing estate, he has earned tens of millions of dollars in T20 leagues, winning more than a dozen trophies - including five IPLs - and setting countless records along the way.

He has also shaped the modern game, both on and off the field. In his prime, Pollard was a phenomenal six-hitter who teams struggled to shut down, a handy medium-pacer, and an athletic boundary rider, taking a series of staggering catches on the rope. He was among cricket's first movers as a freelancer, who realised at a young age that declining a central contract would enable him to get paid what his skills merited.

By 22, Pollard had become a top earner at the IPL auction despite a patchy international record: he had been one of Allen Stanford's Superstars in 2008, and a year later launched a stunning assault on New South Wales' attack in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, hitting 54 off 18 balls to clinch an improbable win.

It earned him the attention of Mumbai Indians, whom he represented for the next 13 IPL seasons. He continues to play under the franchise's umbrella in other leagues, and he has been an IPL and Champions League winner with them. He also boasts titles in the Caribbean, South Africa, Bangladesh, UAE and USA.

Pollard was not without his vulnerabilities: teams often targeted him with either bouncers or legspin, and MS Dhoni came up with the idea of posting a fielder directly behind the bowler in a bid to counter his straight-hitting.

Yet his record should make clear that, more often than not, he found a way to counter whatever teams threw at him: of the 16 men with more than 10,000 T20 runs, Pollard is the only one to maintain an average above 30 and a strike rate above 150. Incredibly, in a career of nearly 700 games, Pollard has hit more sixes (908) than fours (842).

Career high: Mumbai Indians needed 55 off 18 balls when Pollard finally emerged at No. 8 in his first IPL final, in 2010, and their bizarre strategic decision to hold him back so late cost them. Three years later he made amends against the same opposition, Chennai Super Kings, walking out at 52 for 4, then blitzing a match-winning unbeaten 60 off 32 balls. It was the first of Pollard's five IPL titles.

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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