The first T20 cricket match was played on 17th February 2005 between Australia and New Zealand. The look of the Kiwi team was giving a feeling like a very retro look at that time. The match between the two arch rivals turned out to be very exciting.
The match was full of spectators, but it was only after India won the first T20 World Cup in 2007 that the number of viewers watching it increased. In 2008, Lalit Modi started the franchise based Indian Premier League (IPL).
In view of its immense success and popularity, many countries started their franchise based league. Players like David Warner, Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard have made a special place in the hearts of people with their aggressive approach. These players always remain in the headlines with their explosive batting and entertain the fans.
But there are some players who have been performing consistently for years, but they have not achieved so much fame. Let’s take a look at 3 such players.
Michael Klinger
Michael Klinger scored 5960 runs in 206 T20 matches at an average of 34.45 and a strike rate of 123. These figures show how much talent he had. Not only this, seeing his game, he was nicknamed ‘Jevish Bradman’ after the great batsman Don Bradman.
Michael Klinger scored 326 runs for the Perth Scorchers in the 2014–15 Big Bash season and was the highest run-scorer of the tournament. He was also bought by Kochi Tuskers in the 2011 IPL auction. But due to the restrictions on fielding more than 4 foreign players in a team, he could not get a place in the first 11.
Henry Davids
In the 2009 T20 Champions League, Henry Davids scored excellent runs for Cape Town Cobras in the top order. Because of this, Cape Town Cobras managed to win even in difficult conditions. Henry has played 185 T20 matches, in which he has scored 3869 runs at an average of 23.73 and strike rate of 124.76.
Henry consistently performed well in club level cricket. In the 2014–15 Caribbean Premier League season, Henry was third on the list of leading run-scorers for St Lucia Zouks. He scored an impressive 156 runs in 7 matches in the tournament. It was a sign of how good a player he is in the format.
Rajat Bhatia
37-year-old all-rounder Rajat Bhatia was a very experienced player. He used to play very smart cricket and taking important wickets while stopping the flow of runs between 7 to 15 overs was the biggest feature of his bowling. At the same time, he played many important innings with the bat too. Rajat Bhatia used to bowl all kinds of bowling. He used to put cutters, bowl slower and get the ball to reverse swing.
Rajat was part of the Delhi Daredevils team in the first season of IPL. After this, he also played for Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Supergiants for the next few seasons.
Bhatia took 71 wickets in 95 IPL matches. During this, his economy rate was 7.41. Such economical bowling is commendable in the conditions in which he used to come to bowl. At the same time, Bhatia showed good hands in batting too. He scored 342 runs in 95 matches.
