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The greatest T20 player: Gayle or Tahir? Russell or Rashid?

Who has been the best so far in cricket's newest format? You get to decide

The final set of match-ups in the round of 16. The player with more votes in each match-up progresses to the quarter-finals.
Note: Voting closes at 6.30am GMT on Sunday, April 26. Click here to reload the page if the polls don't load for you automatically.

Chris Gayle v Imran Tahir

Chris Gayle
Runs 13,296 Ave 38.20 SR 146.94
Wickets 80 Ave 31.10 ER 7.64
Most runs. Most hundreds. Most sixes. Highest score. Fastest hundred. The one name that sits atop all those lists in T20s: Chris Gayle. He was an established international name by the time T20 cricket took root, but it's a format he made his own with his consistent big-scoring across the world. The first to surpass the 10,000-mark in T20s, he still has a led of over 3000 runs at the top. His 22 hundreds are 14 more than the next-best, and he could become the first to 1,000 sixes. He's won two T20 World Cups, and has impressive numbers in the tournament. Gayle's star turn in the world of T20 leagues began in the 2011 IPL, when he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore as a replacement player. He finished the season as the top run-scorer - a feat he would repeat in 2012 - and was named the MVP as his team made the final. After a third straight IPL season with 600-plus runs, he led Jamaica Tallawahs to the title in the inaugural CPL in 2013 - adding another in 2016 - and is the leading run-scorer in the league. At 40, Gayle is past his prime, but he already has a record that would take some beating.
Imran Tahir
Wickets 365 Ave 19.85 ER 7.00
In a format where wristspin has taken centrestage, Imran Tahir leads the pack with 365 wickets, which places him fourth on the overall list in T20s. Only Dale Steyn has more T20I wickets than him for South Africa. He's won the IPL with the Chennai Super Kings and has taken a hat-trick for Multan Sultans in the PSL. He's got over 100 wickets in England's domestic T20 competition, with an impressive economy rate of 6.87. In two seasons in the CPL, he's taken 32 wickets for the Guyana Amazon Warriors at an average of 15.03 and economy rate of 5.79. Age doesn't seem to deter him: his most prolific year was 2019, and he finished as the year's top T20 wicket-taker. And his celebratory sprints continue to delight fans across the world.

Andre Russell v Rashid Khan

Andre Russell
Runs 5365 Ave 26.95 SR 171.29
Wickets 291 Ave 25.88 ER 8.27
A power-hitter, hit-the-deck bowler, and gun fielder, Andre Russell is a serial winner in T20 cricket. The allrounder has won the T20 World Cup twice, CPL twice with Jamaica Tallawahs in 2013 and 2016, BPL in 2016-17 with Dhaka Dynamites and with Rajshahi Royals in 2019-20, IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, BBL with Sydney Thunder in 2016 and PSL with Islamabad United in 2016. A high-impact player, which also leaves him injury-prone, Russell has won the Player-of-the-Tournament prize in IPL 2015 and 2019, CPL in 2016, and most recently at the BPL, where he led the Royals to the title, and was also the Player of the Final. His best all-round individual display - and probably the best for any player - came in CPL 2018, when he followed a hat-trick with a 40-ball century - the fastest in the tournament - against Trinbago Knight Riders. It is his ability to hit sixes at any point that stands out: Russell is 52nd on the T20 run-scoring charts, but is already in fifth spot on the most sixes list. His strike rate of 171.29 is the highest by a distance among batsmen with over 1,000 T20 runs (the next-best is Colin de Grandhomme's 161.23).
Rashid Khan
Wickets 296 Ave 17.22 ER 6.30
Rashid Khan was earmarked as Afghanistan's first true global star when he made his debut as a 17-year-old, and everything he has done since then has confirmed the early hype. He first came to notice internationally by taking 2 for 26 in a six-run win over eventual champions West Indies at the 2016 T20 World Cup. He was picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 2017 and has been among the top ten wicket-takers in all three editions he has played in. He took the first ever CPL hat-trick in 2017, and later that year, he helped the Adelaide Strikers to the BBL title. With 56 wickets, he's the top overseas wicket-taker in the BBL, with the best average and economy rate for any bowler with 30 or more wickets. He became the first to take four wickets in four balls in a T20I, against Ireland in 2019. What's remarkable is that Rashid, who only debuted in October 2016, is already eighth on the list of top T20 wicket-takers, and fourth in T20Is.
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