Top 10 Cricketers with highest strike-rate in ODI cricket

Words fall short while describing the unparalleled ambassador of Pakistan Cricket, the ruler of many hearts and one of the most popular cricketers ever, the one and only Shahid Afridi. Lala works in mysterious ways and it totally sums his career spanning for about two decades(1996-2015). While his records that are encapsulated under “youngest to do” are highly questionable, he still has myriads of other insane numbers in the limited-overs formats of the game.

In his 398-match ODI career, Afridi scored 8064 runs, 26.11 percent of those runs coming through sixes. No wonder he has the highest number of sixes(351) by any batsman in the history of the 50-over format. Lala maintaining an ODI strike rate of 117-third highest in the list- is remarkable because he has upheld that in a record 398 matches, which is an insane achievement. Even in his 27 outings in Test Cricket, he maintained a strike rate of 86.97, which is quite high in the longest format.

Moreover, he has his share of exploits as a legspinner too. With 395 scalps, Lala became only the second player in history to score 5000 runs and bag 300 wickets in One Day Internationals.

2. Jos Buttler – 119.57

There’s no denying that the English wicket-keeper Jos Buttler is a complete batsman who started off as a T20 star but has now established himself across all the three formats. However, his major ODI exploits still are those remarkable tons with jaw-dropping strike rates.

In fact, in a span of 18 months starting from mid-2014, he scored what at the time were England’s three fastest one-day hundreds, which included a 46-ball blitzkrieg against Pakistan in Dubai. No wonder seven out of his eight hundreds with have come with a strike-rate of above 100. Even though he comes out to bat in the lower-middle order with world class batsmen taking their spots above, Buttler has made full use of every situation.

When the team needs he consolidates the batting attack and when it’s his day he simply carves out a smashing hundred from a minimum number of deliveries. Therefore, he has both- impressive strike rate and average- 119.57 and 41.54 respectively in 108 innings.  From crafting the scoop shot to using the flip shot for six over long-on, Buttler has grace written all over his batting.

1. Glenn Maxwell – 121.95

The 30-year-old Australian batting all-rounder has been around for a while now and has featured in exactly hundred matches for Australia. Over the years he has established himself as a clean striker of the ball and does not necessarily slog to get in quick runs, even though he does score quickly. In this career span of 90 innings, Maxwell has hit exactly the same number of sixes as the batting great Matthew Hayden did in his entire career.

This is just a factor backing his commendable strike rate of 121.95 throughout his career, which is the highest amongst players who have featured in 100 or more ODI matches. Stepping into his second World Cup, Maxwell is a more polished cricketer now. Australia has relied on him up the order many times now in limited-over cricket, starting from T20Is. In fact in his first T20I as an opener, Maxi hit a record-setting hundred.

There’s no denying that he’s a balanced cricketer now especially since his gig with Lancashire this year. The only problem is is his conversion rate since he has 19 fifties but only one century in the 50-overs format. However, he makes it up with his quick scoring.