Maxwell rates Rashid and Gilchrist among best
Russell, Stokes and Tait make the Australian all-rounder’s top five
Top Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has picked Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, West Indies’ destructive batsman Andre Russell, England all-rounder Ben Stokes, legendary Aussie wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist and express pace bowler Shaun Tait as the top-five players in the shortest format of the game ever, ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to commence later this month in UAE and Oman.
Asked to pick five players who he would have in his T20 World XI, Maxwell went for choices that would cover all aspects on the cricket field and could give a tough time to any five-a-side T20 team in the world.
Number of feats
Considered by many to be the premier spinner in T20 cricket, Rashid Khan was Maxwell’s No. 1 pick. The 23-year-old, Rashid has already achieved a number
of feats in his career, across all formats of the game, with batters still finding it difficult to pick his variations.
On West Indian cricketer Andre Russell, Maxwell said that he is “someone who’ll add anything
to any T20 side.” Russell has been an integral part of the West Indies T20 set-up.
Maxwell was also full of praise for the Ben Stokes, who he said was a “fierce competitor.” Having played 148 T20 matches, Stokes has scored 2,865 runs at an average of 24.91 and a strike rate of 135.07.
Maxwell also included Adam Gilchrist in his top-5 picks, saying he is a “game-changer in each and every sense of imagination”. “Unerring with the gloves and smashing with the bat, watching Gilchrist in full flow was a ride will of thrill,” said Maxwell.
On the inclusion of Shaun Tait, Maxwell said, “Having played against him, I know how quick he was. Even at the back end of his career, he was bowling absolute rockets..”