Best Cricket Players to Watch for New Fans

The hardest part of starting a new sport is not the rules. It is that everyone on the field looks equally competent to you, so nothing that happens feels like an achievement.

This guide fixes that. Below is a working list of cricketers worth watching, organized by what they do, with a specific thing to look for in each case. Every number quoted is computed from our own match-by-match data rather than lifted from a media guide. Our Indian Premier League and Big Bash League records cover full career totals in those competitions. Our Ashes records cover England against Australia Test matches through the 2021-22 series, so figures for active players are career-to-date within that window, not lifetime totals.

If you need the vocabulary first, how to read a cricket scorecard and the cricket statistics glossary take about fifteen minutes between them and make everything below legible.

Two numbers that tell you almost everything

For batters, look at average and strike rate. Average is total runs divided by times out, so it measures reliability. Strike rate is runs per 100 balls, so it measures speed. A high average with a low strike rate is a wall. A high strike rate with a low average is a gambler. Both high is rare and is what stardom actually looks like.

For bowlers, look at average and economy. Average is runs conceded per wicket taken. Economy is runs conceded per over, which is per six balls. In the short T20 format an economy under seven is genuinely excellent, and it is much harder than it sounds when the batter is trying to hit every ball out of the ground.

Batting

Virat Kohli, India

The most watched batter of his generation, and the numbers explain why. In our IPL records he has 9,336 runs at an average of 40.42 and a strike rate of 134.80, with nine hundreds, 68 fifties and 316 sixes across 275 innings. Nobody else in our IPL database is close to that run total.

What to watch: the way he builds a chase. Kohli is famous for pursuing targets rather than setting them, and the thing to notice is how little of it involves big hitting. He rotates the strike, takes twos where other players take ones, and leaves the violence for the last few overs. It is the closest thing cricket has to a two-out rally hitter who never seems to press.

Rohit Sharma, India

7,329 IPL runs in our data, at a strike rate of 132.92, with 323 sixes, which is more than Kohli despite fewer runs. That ratio is the whole story.

What to watch: the pull shot. Rohit plays balls aimed at his ribs with what looks like a lazy swivel, and they go 90 yards. There is no visible effort. If you have ever watched a baseball hitter who seems to be swinging at half speed and still drives the ball out, it is the same illusion, and it is the same underlying thing: timing rather than force.

Steve Smith, Australia

In our Ashes records, 3,044 runs in 32 Tests at an average of 59.68, with 11 hundreds. An average approaching 60 in the sport's most demanding rivalry puts him in a very small group.

What to watch: the technique, which is wrong. Smith shuffles across his stumps before every delivery, fidgets constantly, and ends up in positions no coaching manual would endorse. It works anyway, and watching a bowler try to find a plan against it is one of the genuine pleasures of Test cricket. Our guide to the Ashes explains why that particular series is the right place to see him.

Suryakumar Yadav, India

4,581 IPL runs at a strike rate of 148.59 in our records, with 178 sixes.

What to watch: the geography. Most batters score in an arc in front of them. Suryakumar scores everywhere, including directly behind himself, using shots that involve getting down on one knee and flicking a fast bowler over the wicketkeeper's head. It looks improvised because it is. If you want to understand why fielding placement matters, watch someone try to set a field for him, and read cricket fielding positions explained to see what the captain is working with.

Four more worth your time

Shubman Gill has 4,598 IPL runs at 40.33 and a strike rate of 142.09 with five hundreds, which is the modern profile: fast scoring without giving anything away. Travis Head is the opposite of subtle, striking at 170.05 in the IPL and scoring 1,394 BBL runs for Adelaide, and he tends to decide matches inside the first six overs. Kane Williamson is the control group, with 2,128 IPL runs at 35.47 but a strike rate of only 125.62 and 18 fifties without a single hundred, which tells you exactly what kind of player he is. And Babar Azam has no IPL entry at all in our data, because Pakistani players have not featured in that competition for many years, which is itself a useful thing to know about how cricket's politics shape its leagues.

Joe Root deserves an honest note. He is one of the finest batters England has produced, but in our Ashes records he has 2,016 runs at 38.76 with only three hundreds in 29 Tests against Australia. Great players sometimes have one opponent who gets the better of them, and cricket keeps very long receipts.

Fast bowling

Fast bowling is the part of cricket that needs no explanation to an American audience. A man sprints thirty yards and throws a hard ball at ninety miles an hour at a person standing twenty-two yards away. The variation is in what the ball does after it lands.

Jasprit Bumrah, India

In our IPL data: 190 wickets in 158 matches at an average of 23.54, with an economy of 7.32. That economy, sustained over a decade in a format built to punish bowlers, is the number that matters.

What to watch: the run-up and the arm. Bumrah approaches with a short, almost apologetic run and then releases the ball from an arm position that looks anatomically improbable, which makes the delivery arrive later than the batter expects. He also bowls the yorker, a ball aimed at the base of the stumps and the batter's toes, better than anyone currently playing. He was named player of the tournament at the 2024 T20 World Cup, which is unusual for a bowler.

Pat Cummins, Australia

Our Ashes records give him 73 wickets in 14 Tests at 20.75, with an economy of 2.83 and a strike rate of 43.95, meaning a wicket roughly every seven overs. Then look at his IPL economy in our data: 9.21. Same bowler, different format, wildly different job description. That contrast is one of the most instructive things in the whole database.

What to watch: relentlessness. Cummins bowls the same hard length over and over, hitting the pitch just short of driving range, and the wickets arrive from accumulated pressure rather than one magic ball.

Mitchell Starc, Australia

74 Ashes wickets in 18 Tests at 27.45 in our records, with a strike rate under 50. In the Big Bash our data has him at 20 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 14.85, which is a remarkable rate even over a small sample.

What to watch: left-arm swing at high speed. Starc angles the ball in toward a right-handed batter and then swings it back the other way late. When it works, the stumps go flying and the batter looks like he was not consulted.

Three more

Kagiso Rabada has 151 IPL wickets at 22.31 in our data, and bowls with more visible aggression than almost anyone. Jofra Archer has 82 IPL wickets at 24.05 and 34 Big Bash wickets at 23.29, delivered from a run-up so relaxed that the speed on the readout comes as a shock. Trent Boult has 107 IPL wickets in our records and specializes in the first over of an innings, swinging a brand new ball while the batter is still adjusting.

Spin

Spin bowling is where cricket has no baseball equivalent at all. The bowler delivers slowly, on purpose, and makes the ball change direction off the ground using wrist or finger rotation. Good spin is a chess problem played at walking pace.

Rashid Khan, Afghanistan

The single most striking set of numbers in our T20 data. In the IPL: 179 wickets in 153 matches at 24.02, economy 7.28. In the Big Bash for Adelaide: 98 wickets in 68 matches at 17.51, with an economy of 6.44. An economy under 6.5 across nearly seventy T20 matches is extraordinary.

What to watch: the speed. Rashid bowls leg spin considerably faster than the textbook says you should, which removes the batter's thinking time, and his googly, the delivery that spins the opposite way, is nearly impossible to pick out of the hand. He is also from a country whose cricket program is barely three decades old, which is worth remembering.

Sunil Narine, West Indies

209 IPL wickets at 25.26 with an economy of 6.80 in our records, plus 1,820 runs at a strike rate of 165.30 including a hundred. He is a specialist bowler who was promoted to open the batting and turned out to be good at that too.

What to watch: the action. Narine barely rotates his arm, and the ball can spin either way with no visible change in delivery. Batters have played entire careers without reading him reliably.

Two craftsmen

Ravichandran Ashwin has 142 IPL wickets at an economy of 7.06 in our data, and is the sport's great tinkerer, changing his action and his angles constantly. Yuzvendra Chahal has 205 IPL wickets at 22.28, among the highest totals in our database, achieved by tossing the ball slowly into the air and daring people to hit it.

All-rounders

An all-rounder both bats and bowls at a high standard. In a sport where most players do one thing, this is the most valuable and rarest profile.

Ben Stokes, England

In our Ashes records: 1,157 runs at 34.02 with 24 sixes, and 38 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls with a best of 6 for 36. Neither half is world-beating on its own. Together, and in the situations he produces them, they are.

What to watch: Stokes is the player most likely to do something absurd when a match appears lost. That reputation is earned rather than manufactured, and it makes any game he is in worth staying with.

The rest of the group

Ravindra Jadeja has 3,526 IPL runs and 164 wickets across 213 matches in our data, and is also probably the best fielder of his era, which is a third skill most players do not have. Hardik Pandya combines 2,955 IPL runs at a strike rate of 146.29 with 82 wickets. Andre Russell has an IPL strike rate of 174.18 with 223 sixes and 122 wickets at 21.59, and is the most physically explosive cricketer most newcomers will ever see. Glenn Maxwell has 3,120 Big Bash runs at a strike rate of 156.39 with a best of 154, and plays shots that appear to be jokes until they land in the stands.

Wicketkeepers

The wicketkeeper crouches behind the stumps and does roughly the job of a catcher, with no glove that big and no mask most of the time. Many of them also bat in the top order.

MS Dhoni has 5,439 IPL runs and 264 sixes in our records, and his glovework behind the stumps is fast enough that opposing batters stop leaving their crease. Rishabh Pant has 3,865 IPL runs at a strike rate of 146.79 and treats the format as a personal dare. Jos Buttler has 4,646 IPL runs at 39.71 with seven hundreds, the most of any keeper in our data. Heinrich Klaasen has the most alarming combination in the database, averaging 42.08 at a strike rate of 166.72, and Nicholas Pooran is close behind at 164.09 with 186 sixes. AB de Villiers, now retired, finished with 5,162 IPL runs at a strike rate of 151.69 and is the player most often cited when people argue about who invented modern T20 batting.

The historical names

If you get interested enough to go backward, four names carry most of the weight.

Player	Our Ashes record
Shane Warne	195 wickets in 36 Tests at 23.25, economy 2.52
Glenn McGrath	157 wickets in 30 Tests at 20.92
James Anderson	112 wickets in 35 Tests at 33.76, economy 2.95
Ricky Ponting	2,476 runs at 44.21 with eight hundreds

Warne is the one to start with. He was a leg spinner who became the most famous cricketer in the world doing something that has no analogue in American sport, and the Ashes footage is widely available.

Where to start watching

Pick a league rather than a tournament, because leagues are on regularly and tournaments are not.

The Indian Premier League has the highest concentration of the players above and runs in the American morning. Australia's Big Bash League runs through the American winter with a lighter, more accessible presentation. T20 franchise leagues around the world maps the rest of the calendar, and how to watch cricket in the USA covers the practical side.

Two things to do while you learn. Build a playing XI from the players above and see whether your team makes structural sense, which forces you to think about balance rather than star names. And when you think the terminology has stuck, the cricket quiz will tell you quickly whether it has. If any of it stops making sense, cricket rules explained for Americans is the reset button, and the full player database has records for hundreds more names than the ones here.