Lendl Simmons

An attractive opening batter with strokes all around the ground, Lendl Simmons was one of a number of globetrotting T20 specialists from the West Indies in the 2010s. While he only played eight Tests, he showed his value as a white-ball player, particularly in T20Is, and forged a successful career for various franchises around the world.

Simmons, the nephew of the former West Indies allrounder Phil, made his international debut in late 2006, during an ODI series in Pakistan, scored 70 in his second match and was dropped after he didn't do much of note in his next six games. He came back two years later and went on to play 68 ODIs in all (coincidentally, the same as the number of T20Is he played). His top ODI score, 122 against Bangladesh, came in 2011, and his only other hundred in the format was in his last series in West Indies colours, in their first game of the 2015 World Cup, against Ireland.

Simmons' best known contribution in T20Is came in the course of West Indies' run to the world title in 2016. Having arrived in India a day and a half earlier as an injury replacement, he scored an unbeaten 51-ball 82 against India in the semi-final to take his side through. In the 2009 edition, two games into his international career, he got off to a flying start with 150 runs in his first three T20Is. He did not manage to go out on a high in the 2021 tournament, though, playing just two games, both defeats for West Indies.

As a T20 freelancer, Simmons was one of the most consistent overseas players in the IPL, and was Mumbai Indians' top run-scorer with 540 runs in their title-winning 2015 season. In the CPL, he was part of the Guyana Amazon Warriors team that made it to the final in the first two seasons; in the second of those, he was the player of the tournament with 446 runs. He finally won the title with Trinbago Knight Riders in 2020, leading the chase with 84 not out off 49 balls in the final.