Sunil Narine joins Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo in elite T20 club

SHARJAH: West Indies star spinner Sunil Narine has etched his name further into T20 cricket history by becoming only the third bowler to claim 600 wickets in the format.

Narine, widely regarded as one of the greatest T20 bowlers of all time, reached the milestone during Abu Dhabi Knight Riders’ opening ILT20 match against Sharjah Warriorz on Wednesday in Sharjah. 

The 36-year-old dismissed Tom Abell to break past the 600-wicket barrier, having remained on 599 since the conclusion of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in September.

Captaining the Knight Riders in Jason Holder’s absence, Narine joined elite company with Rashid Khan and Dwayne Bravo — the only others to have taken 600 or more wickets in recognised T20 cricket.

Rashid currently leads the all-time chart with 681 wickets, followed by former West Indies all-rounder Bravo with 631. 

Although Narine has taken the most innings (558) to reach the feat, he expressed relief at finally getting past the long-standing mark after being stuck on 599 for more than two months.

Most wickets in T20 cricket

• 681 – Rashid Khan (495 innings)
• 631 – Dwayne Bravo (546 innings)
• 600 – Sunil Narine (558 innings)
• 570 – Imran Tahir (429 innings)
• 504 – Shakib Al Hasan (453 innings)

With Rashid featuring for MI Emirates as a replacement player, the Afghan leg-spinner now has a strong opportunity to push towards the 700-wicket milestone, given he will compete in both the ILT20 and the SA20 consecutively.

In the match, Warriorz’s decision to bowl first backfired as Abu Dhabi Knight Riders posted a massive 233-run total.

Liam Livingstone and Sherfane Rutherford hammered explosive knocks, with Livingstone smashing 33 runs off a single Dwayne Pretorius over to put the game out of reach.

Despite late resistance from Tim David, supported by Pretorius and Adil Rashid, Warriorz fell short as the Knight Riders opened their campaign with an impressive 39-run victory.