On Sunday, Kieron Pollard climbed to the summit of T20 cricket, surpassing Chris Gayle's long-standing record to become the format's leading run-scorer. Pollard went past Gayle's tally of 14,562 runs during MI New York's opener in MLC 2026 in Dallas, ending a reign at the top that had lasted for more than a decade.
Gayle was the undisputed giant of the format. He held the record for a combined total of 4,616 days, with his final and uninterrupted spell at the top stretching 4, 463 days from the 2014 T20 World Cup onward.
That run was more than three times longer than any previous reign.
Only Australia's Brad Hodge comes close, having held the record for over 1000 days in total, including a longest single stretch of 1,259 days between January 2007 and June 2010.
Gayle was the undisputed giant of the format. He held the record for a combined total of 4,616 days, with his final and uninterrupted spell at the top stretching 4, 463 days from the 2014 T20 World Cup onward. That run was more than three times longer than any previous reign.
Only Australia's Brad Hodge comes close, having held the record for over 1000 days in total, including a longest single stretch of 1,259 days between January 2007 and June 2010.
The record changed hands frequently during the format's early years. Hodge and his Leicestershire teammate Darren Maddy traded the top spot through much of the 2000s, before fellow Australian David Hussey joined the mix in 2010.
Gayle first reached the pinnacle during IPL 2013, a season highlighted by his extraordinary unbeaten 175* for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors India - still the highest individual score in T20 cricket.
Although Gayle has not formally announced his retirement, his last T20 appearance came in February 2022 in the Bangladesh Premier League.
At that point, he led the charts by nearly 3000 runs, with Pollard in third place on 11,422 runs. Now aged 39, Pollard is the oldest player to sit at the summit of the T20 run chart.
-Cricbuzz
Gayle was the undisputed giant of the format. He held the record for a combined total of 4,616 days, with his final and uninterrupted spell at the top stretching 4, 463 days from the 2014 T20 World Cup onward.
That run was more than three times longer than any previous reign.
Only Australia's Brad Hodge comes close, having held the record for over 1000 days in total, including a longest single stretch of 1,259 days between January 2007 and June 2010.
Gayle was the undisputed giant of the format. He held the record for a combined total of 4,616 days, with his final and uninterrupted spell at the top stretching 4, 463 days from the 2014 T20 World Cup onward. That run was more than three times longer than any previous reign.
Only Australia's Brad Hodge comes close, having held the record for over 1000 days in total, including a longest single stretch of 1,259 days between January 2007 and June 2010.
The record changed hands frequently during the format's early years. Hodge and his Leicestershire teammate Darren Maddy traded the top spot through much of the 2000s, before fellow Australian David Hussey joined the mix in 2010.
Gayle first reached the pinnacle during IPL 2013, a season highlighted by his extraordinary unbeaten 175* for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors India - still the highest individual score in T20 cricket.
Although Gayle has not formally announced his retirement, his last T20 appearance came in February 2022 in the Bangladesh Premier League.
At that point, he led the charts by nearly 3000 runs, with Pollard in third place on 11,422 runs. Now aged 39, Pollard is the oldest player to sit at the summit of the T20 run chart.
-Cricbuzz
