No. 2: Sunil Narine

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Tom Moody on what makes Sunil Narine a T20 great

Narine was already one of the all-time top five T20 cricketers by December 31, 2016. Of the 111 bowlers to have taken at least 100 wickets in the format up to that point, he was one of only two - his fellow Trinbagonian Samuel Badree was the other - with an economy rate of less than a run a ball.

Over 198 matches for (at that point) nine teams across franchise, international and domestic cricket, Narine had been the force who turned T20 into Twenty16, forcing oppositions to see out his four overs or risk falling in a heap to his exacting and inscrutable mix of fast offbreaks and knuckleballs delivered from the front of the hand with a grip all his own. He was so unhittable that he once bowled a Super Over wicket-maiden, with a young Nicholas Pooran on strike for five of the six balls.

Then, on New Year's Day, 2017, this freakish outlier turned into something even more terrifying. This man, who had shown little evidence of batting ability, having only faced 333 balls in 198 T20 games, walked out to open the batting in the BBL's Melbourne derby.

This is how ESPNcricinfo recorded the first ball Narine ever faced as a T20 opener, against the left-arm spinner Michael Beer:

0.1 Beer to Narine, no run
Tossed up and Narine dances down and tries to hit this miles but misses, he's hit on the pad

A swing and a miss, but the swing was the thing. The concept of pinch-hitting wasn't new to cricket, but Narine's promotion was something different, a recalibration of the value of a wicket. Batters grow up conditioned to put a price on their wicket, and instinct, no matter what the basic arithmetic of T20 may say, often trumps what may be best for their side. Why not then promote someone blessed with ball-striking ability but unburdened by this instinct for survival?

Narine's 488 runs as opener in the 2024 IPL came at a strike rate of 180.74 © BCCI

Over the best part of a decade now, the idea of Narine the opener has endured, notwithstanding the doubters, notwithstanding opposition plans targeting his weaknesses, chiefly against the fast, short ball at the body. The strengths - stillness, eye, timing, and a bat-swing of old-fashioned purity - have made him a genuine match-winner with his secondary skill, and when he fails, it's almost always an early dismissal rather than a protracted struggle. Forty-two batters have scored 2000 runs in the first six overs of T20 innings since the start of 2017, and Narine (17.87) has the worst average of all of them. Only three, however, have better strike rates than his 155.36.

This second wind as allrounder has come at the perfect time for Narine, just as his bowling has gone from extraordinary to merely excellent. With the legality of his action coming under scrutiny on multiple occasions, he has had to remodel it and lose some of his venom in the process; the most visible manifestation is that his offbreak, when he's allowed to bowl it, no longer turns as sharply as it used to. But he's still extremely hard to hit, as he showed during Kolkata Knight Riders' run to the IPL 2024 title, his economy rate of 6.69 over the season bettered only by Jasprit Bumrah among bowlers who delivered at least ten overs.

Career high: Narine had already been KKR's MVP in two title-winning seasons, but IPL 2024 was perhaps his greatest, certainly as an allrounder. If his 17 wickets and unimpeachable economy didn't make him valuable enough, throw in 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74, with three fifties and a maiden T20 hundred - all this in his 36th year. And that 56-ball 109 came in one of the greatest matches of his career, because he also took 2 for 30 in four overs, his economy rate of 7.50 the best of the 11 bowlers used on a day when 223 for 6 met 224 for 8. Imagine doing all that and ending up on the losing side.

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

Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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