Most T20 Centuries: All-Time, T20I & League Leaders

The hundred in T20 cricket is a strange, beautiful creature. It asks a batter to sprint a marathon. It punishes hesitation, yet rewards restraint. It must be paced through the gears without pausing in neutral. It must ride chaos in the field, the tyranny of the clock, the momentum of the chase. And somehow, it has become the currency that defines greatness in this format. The players with the most T20 centuries aren’t just big hitters; they’re masters of tempo, risk, and game awareness.

This is a deep dive into the most T20 centuries across formats: T20 Internationals, franchise leagues, and all‑T20 combined. It separates T20I from leagues for clarity and focuses on how hundreds are made, when they change matches, who leads in each league, and why the landscape shifts so quickly. It’s not simply a list; it’s a guide to understanding what a T20 hundred really means in the modern game.

What counts, what doesn’t, and why it matters

• All T20 combines everything with official T20 status: T20 Internationals (T20Is), franchise leagues (IPL, PSL, BBL, CPL, Vitality Blast, SA20, ILT20, BPL, LPL, and others), and domestic competitions with full T20 designation.
• T20I includes only internationals between ICC-member nations with official status.
• League and tournament splits are important because conditions, roles, schedules, and opposition quality vary. A hundred in the IPL or PSL often comes against stacked bowling attacks with global pace and spin; a T20I hundred can arrive under intense national pressure or on uneven, unfamiliar surfaces.
• The pace of scoring in T20 often produces extreme outcomes. One explosive over changes an innings. That’s why T20 hundreds produce disproportionate match impact and why teams with reliable centurions tend to win more.

The all‑format summit: who owns the mountain

Talk to any T20 pro about most centuries in T20 cricket and one name arrives before the question finishes: Chris Gayle. Across all T20—international and leagues—Gayle sits at the top. He redefined what a T20 hundred looked like: tall, still base; brutal bat speed; contempt for length; and patience to let the game come. His most famous T20 hundred, the unbeaten 175, didn’t just break records; it rewired how captains set fields and how batters think about a powerplay.

The chasers are a distinctly modern breed. Babar Azam’s T20 centuries stack up across T20I, PSL, and other leagues, built on high‑class repeatable shapes: a narrow backlift, late hands, and classical risk management until launch. Jos Buttler racks up league hundreds with icy efficiency—most centuries in IPL for a non‑Indian right-hander, multiple hundreds in close chases, and a technique that produces lofted drives no coach would dare teach. Virat Kohli’s hundreds in the IPL are a masterclass in controlled aggression: spring‑loaded legs, a late swipe over mid‑wicket, and a refusal to slog straight balls early. David Warner, Suryakumar Yadav, Colin Munro, Brendon McCullum, and others populate the tier just beneath the summit.

These players are not the same type of centurion. Gayle is a reset button—an innings that flips a match on its head. Babar is architecture under pressure. Buttler is cold-blooded, acceleration on schedule. Kohli is narrative control, using every phase like chapters in a chase. The point: most T20 hundreds by a player can be achieved in very different ways.

How T20 hundreds are actually built

• The powerplay blueprint: The best centurions don’t always explode early. Many of them nick the powerplay at a run-a-ball or slightly above, evaluating pace, bounce, and swing. Watch Buttler or Babar in this phase; they use high-percentage shots square of the wicket and pick a single bowler to target when a short length repeats.
• The middle-overs shift: Century-makers stay on strike. They control tempo by manipulating fields—drop singles into a two‑man ring, then pressure the bowler to miss wider or fuller. If a spinner misses by inches, Suryakumar or Glenn Maxwell converts it into twelve in two balls.
• The death calculation: A hundred is won or lost here. The great ones don’t panic. They trust that a bowler can’t execute every yorker. They know which length—fuller wide, slower back-of-length, or slot—fits their swing path. Elite centurions like Gayle, Maxwell, and Warner understand the angle geometry so well that they appear to pre‑hit balls. It isn’t guesswork; it’s studied prediction.
• Strike-rate and balls faced: T20 hundreds typically land between mid‑fifties and low‑seventies in balls faced. Anything faster is freakish. Anything slower demands both a platform and a finish like a storm. The sweet spot is a score that benefits the team while leaving room for a teammate’s cameo.
• Batting position: Openers dominate century charts. Time is oxygen in T20. Middle-order hundreds happen, but they require early entry and an unusually long innings.

All‑T20 leaders, the editorial list

Without drowning you in a static table that ages too quickly, here’s the editorial layer—the names that define the top of the all‑T20 centuries list and why they’re there.

• Chris Gayle: the benchmark for most T20 hundreds all time. Left-handed, tall base, can wait twelve balls and still finish with a strike-rate north of two hundred. Century threat every second innings in his peak franchise years.
• Babar Azam: the metronome who learned how to detonate. Early strike rotation, classical cover drives to control length, late ramp in the last five. PSL hundreds plus T20I tons shape his all‑format tally.
• Jos Buttler: cold precision. His T20 hundreds list is filled with well-timed chases and openers’ masterclasses. The aerial straight drive and pick‑up over midwicket are his signatures.
• Virat Kohli: Mr. IPL hundreds list. Repeated high‑class hundreds for one franchise built on chasing targets with surgical control. Only a few cross‑bat shots; most of his damage is conventional—and lethal.
• David Warner: engines running from ball one. The cut and pull make you go shorter; the lofted extra‑cover drive punishes when you do. Stacks of league hundreds across venues and conditions.
• Suryakumar Yadav: unique century-maker. Range hitting with a baseball hitter’s chest-on stance. His T20I hundreds arrive with angles no textbook covers. The scoop, the open‑face dab that still travels for six, the inside‑out over extra—he’s a puzzle that bowlers still can’t solve.
• Colin Munro and Brendon McCullum: New Zealand’s left-right blueprint. McCullum gave the format its attitude; Munro added pure velocity in T20I, stacking multiple hundreds with the same front‑leg‑clear method.
• KL Rahul and Shubman Gill: sleek machines in the league circuit, with IPL hundreds that read like proof-of-concept for classical batters thriving at T20 tempo.

Most T20I centuries by a player

T20I centuries sit in a different pressure environment. Opposition variety is extreme—one series is against the quickest attacks in world cricket, the next is on a spicy associate surface with one end barely holding together. To lead the T20I hundreds list requires adaptability.

In the top bracket sit two contemporary giants of white-ball batting. One is the captain with the calm head and heavy bat swing through mid‑wicket; the other is the shot‑maker who can reverse‑engineer any field, any day.

T20I century leaders (headline bracket)

• Glenn Maxwell – 5
• Rohit Sharma – 5
• Suryakumar Yadav – 4
• Babar Azam – 3
• Colin Munro – 3

That top line is telling. Maxwell’s T20I centuries include one of the great solo heists on an Australian deck with big square boundaries—range hitting built on bottom‑hand strength. Rohit’s five include classical opener’s tons, achieved with a setup that refuses to overhit; check‑swings that still clear ropes; a back‑lift timed to late acceleration.

Suryakumar’s four are case studies in geometry. He often scores in zones traditional cricket never mapped, forcing fielders into impossible midpoints. Babar’s three are innings of control escalating to command. Munro’s trio leaned into raw intent, bullying lengths that dared to be full or short by even a fraction.

T20 World Cup centuries, the premium tier

The T20 World Cup centuries list lives in a class of its own. Surfaces vary from slow turners to explosive belters; the ball changes hardness, the pressure doesn’t. The cleanest way to state the premium record: Chris Gayle stands alone as the only player with multiple hundreds at the tournament. One at the beginning of the modern T20 era that made the format feel dangerous, another years later that confirmed his aura. The rest of the list includes Alex Hales, Brendon McCullum, Mahela Jayawardene, Suresh Raina, Jos Buttler, and a smattering of others whose names are tied to one dazzling, perfect night.

League-by-league leaders and storylines

Most centuries in IPL

No league invests more glamor in the three-figure mark than the IPL. Even a near‑hundred can swing a season. Yet one player has made a habit of turning good starts into statements.

• Virat Kohli leads the IPL most hundreds list. His run of IPL centuries includes multiple chases iced with overs to spare, and a cluster of tons in the same season that changed the math of what an opener could produce.
• Jos Buttler is the most prolific non‑Indian centurion in the competition. He pairs early caution with merciless finishing. When he’s in, it often ends early for the opposition.
• Chris Gayle owns the IPL’s most famous hundred: 175*. That innings broke the concept of par score.
• The pack behind features KL Rahul, David Warner, Shane Watson, AB de Villiers, Shubman Gill, and Sanju Samson—each with multiple IPL hundreds and a distinct style.

Illustrative snapshot: IPL centuries leaders

• Virat Kohli – 8
• Jos Buttler – 7
• Chris Gayle – 6
• KL Rahul – 4
• David Warner – 4
• Shane Watson – 4
• AB de Villiers – 3
• Shubman Gill – 3
• Sanju Samson – 3

Most centuries in PSL

The PSL is a bowler’s league. Wrist‑spinners with sharp dip, left‑armers hitting the heel of the bat, and quicks who love scrambling seams. Centuries here are honest, hard‑earned things.

• Kamran Akmal set the early standard with multiple PSL hundreds. He went hard in the powerplay and didn’t let up.
• Babar Azam added class hundreds that re‑center the PSL hundreds list around control, not just violence.
• Usman Khan joined the elite bracket with a burst of big ones for Multan Sultans, including a sequence of heavy scoring that made him the league’s most dangerous top‑order wildcard.
• Jason Roy and Sharjeel Khan have also crafted headline PSL tons, often on surfaces that punish mishits.

Most centuries in BBL

Australia’s BBL produces its own archetype: flat decks in some venues, huge square boundaries in others, and boundary riders who run like sprinters. The league has produced some sparkling hundreds.

• Ben McDermott has been the most consistent BBL centurion, the first to stack multiple hundreds with a technique built on bottom‑hand control and clean pick‑up over cow corner.
• Glenn Maxwell has delivered some of the most spectacular hundreds the league has seen, including that absurd unbeaten monster for the Melbourne Stars where every length, every line, became a hitting arc.
• Usman Khawaja and D’Arcy Short are among those who’ve produced elegant, high‑paced hundreds with minimal slog.

CPL most centuries

The Caribbean Premier League is Gayle territory—familiar grounds, heavy air, and long ropes. Gayle’s CPL hundreds headline the chart, but the league has seen Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Johnson Charles, and Andre Russell produce electric three‑figure knocks. CPL hundreds often arrive in late‑tournament games when surfaces tire and reading spin becomes a superpower.

Vitality Blast most centuries

England’s domestic T20 incubated white‑ball invention. The Blast’s most prolific century makers include Luke Wright, Michael Klinger, and a stream of overseas pros who fell in love with English summer evenings and white Kookaburras that begged to be hit. The league’s schedule—back‑to‑backs, small grounds, late finishes—creates conditions for streaky runs of form. When a batter finds rhythm here, two hundreds in three games isn’t unheard of.

SA20, ILT20, BPL, LPL

The newer leagues (SA20, ILT20) have already produced statement hundreds—Jos Buttler, Faf du Plessis, and a handful of gun openers marking territory. The BPL remains a Gayle fiefdom historically, with others like Tamim Iqbal and Evin Lewis also stamping the competition. The LPL, younger and more volatile in squad composition, has fewer hundreds overall but a rising curve as teams stabilize combinations and top orders settle.

Signature profiles

Chris Gayle T20 centuries, the archetype

• Trait: Still head, minimal pre‑movement, full leverage. Bowlers try to go wide yorker; he opens the blade and still gets under it. Do not bowl short on a deck with even bounce; it will land ten rows deep.
• Pattern: Early sighters, then a switch flips. One over goes for twenty and the field never recovers. When he reaches fifty, the next fifty can take fifteen balls.
• Legacy: Most centuries in T20 cricket, a record that taught franchises to anchor line‑ups around a destructive left-hander with powerplay patience.

Rohit Sharma’s T20I hundreds, the brushstroke centurion

• Trait: Elegance weaponized. Minimal effort lofted drives over extra cover. A pull shot that stays flat and travels.
• Pattern: Allows himself to start on the front foot but with low risk. Uses sweeps sparingly. The third quarter of the innings is where he clicks from run‑a‑ball to one‑and‑a‑half. Finishes without looking like he’s accelerated.
• Legacy: Most T20I centuries, tied at the top bracket, and the exemplar of how to open in T20Is without slogging.

Suryakumar Yadav’s T20I hundreds, geometry lessons

• Trait: Front‑on stance, hockey wrists, panoramic scoring arc. Can place the same ball over fine leg or deep extra‑cover without a change in bat swing.
• Pattern: Five or six balls of observation, then relentless field exploitation. He doesn’t hit gaps; he invents them.
• Legacy: Showed that range hitting can be sustainable at the highest level. Made teams change fine leg and third man roles mid‑over, a rarity in T20I.

Virat Kohli’s IPL centuries, control with a blade

• Trait: Rhythm. The clip over midwicket looks like an on‑drive. Feet move early, head stays still. He refuses low‑percentage slogs.
• Pattern: One of the great chasers. If fifty comes by the tenth, he engineers end‑overs so calm they feel scripted. When he goes deep, the hundred is a feature, not a surprise.
• Legacy: Most centuries in IPL, a stack of match-winning tons in chases, and proof that classical technique thrives at T20 tempo.

Jos Buttler’s T20 hundreds, the execution model

• Trait: Trigger movement that buys him room. A pick‑up that turns good‑length balls into slot. The loft straight is his badge.
• Pattern: Powerplay dot‑ball tolerance; he rarely forces it. One loosened over turns an ordinary start into a hundred track.
• Legacy: Among the players with most T20 centuries across leagues; the modern blueprint for a franchise opener who can chase or set with equal comfort.

Babar Azam’s T20 centuries, art with arithmetic

• Trait: Quiet head, late wrists, precision placement. He rarely premeditates; he coerces.
• Pattern: Starts with run‑a‑ball control, pressures spin in the middle, unloads when quicks miss at the death. Can produce back‑to‑back T20 hundreds across formats because the method is repeatable.
• Legacy: Proof that classical batting can lead the most T20 hundreds by an active player cohort without swinging wildly.

Glenn Maxwell’s T20I hundreds, chaos under control

• Trait: Unorthodox stance morphs into conventional impact at contact. Massive bat speed from a wide base. Reverse hits that behave like orthodoxy in his hands.
• Pattern: Looks frenetic, but the shot map is planned. Picks a side of the ground and erases a bowler’s stock ball altogether.
• Legacy: Joint leader for most T20I centuries, with innings that felt like magic tricks performed with a sledgehammer.

Colin Munro, Brendon McCullum, David Warner, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and others—each has authored T20 hundreds that carry their fingerprint. Munro bludgeoned. McCullum invented swagger. Warner hustled. Rahul flowed. Gill illustrated the modern Indian top‑order template: glide to fifty, then burst.

Superlatives that define the record book

Fastest T20 century: Chris Gayle’s thirty‑ball hundred in a league match is the stuff of myth. It turned length balls into generosity and yorkers into low full tosses. That night bent reality.

Fastest T20I century: The fastest three‑figure mark in T20I dropped below the thirty‑five‑ball barrier, a landmark once thought unbreakable after David Miller and Rohit Sharma had parked in the mid‑thirties. Associate cricket’s explosion added jet fuel; the record now lives in that new zone.

Youngest and oldest: Youngest in T20I belongs to a French phenom, Gustav McKeon, who arrived swinging and lifted the record without ceremony. Oldest in T20 belongs to the same mountain man who dominates all‑T20: Chris Gayle. His late‑career hundreds were muscle memory and match awareness—he knew gaps before fields were set.

Firsts that still matter: First T20I century: Chris Gayle again, on a night when the format announced itself to the world with a swaggering left‑handed assault. The template—opener, tall base, pick-of-length hitting—was set early.

Back‑to‑back T20 hundreds: A rare trick, but it has been done. In league play, Shikhar Dhawan produced consecutive IPL hundreds that showed how clean timing and rational risk can stack centuries. In another season, Shubman Gill delivered back‑to‑back IPL tons across the end of the league phase and a knockout, playing through the line with repeatable mechanics.

Most hundreds in a single tournament or season: IPL’s single‑season benchmark lives with Virat Kohli’s four, matched later by Jos Buttler. It’s the sort of run that anchors an entire campaign from one end of the sheet.

Highest individual score with a T20 century: Chris Gayle’s 175* is the king of T20 scores. In T20I, Aaron Finch’s 172 remains the peak. Each innings wasn’t just big; it was engineered with ruthless clarity—target the short side, punish width, and trust the muscle memory when the ball softens.

When centuries decide matches

T20 centuries in chases carry a different weight. They vacuum uncertainty from a scoreboard and deflate the bowling side’s creativity. A hundred while setting a target can be equally lethal if it lands at a strike‑rate that keeps the opposition out of par chase territory. The texture of the hundred matters: a 110 off 65 might be a better batting effort than a 101 off 49 if conditions are sticky and wickets tumble around the set batter. Match impact isn’t just balls and boundaries; it is timing. Rohit’s opener’s ton with a late flourish in T20I, Kohli’s undefeated IPL hundreds in tough chases, Butler’s icy league tons while two wickets fell at the other end—these are impact innings where the hundred was a byproduct of control.

Country‑wise snapshots for T20I centuries

India T20I centuries list, the spine

The leaderboard is led by Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. Behind them sit KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and Deepak Hooda, each with a T20I century to their name. The Indian pattern is clear: an opening and No. 3 cohort that can construct classical innings, plus a 360‑degree No. 4 who breaks fields.

Pakistan T20I centuries list, timing and temperament

Babar Azam leads the way with multiple T20I hundreds. Others have joined the club, including Mohammad Rizwan. The common thread is discipline early and surgical acceleration once the pitch reveals itself.

Australia T20I centuries list, power and range

Glenn Maxwell sits at the top with five. Aaron Finch and David Warner have also posted hundreds, showing a national template centered on big bats, powerplay aggression, and deep boundary hitting.

England T20I centuries list, white‑ball revolution

Centuries spread across a batting order built on aggression: Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, and Dawid Malan have each posted T20I hundreds. Their approach often aims for ten‑an‑over from the start, with license to keep the foot down.

New Zealand T20I centuries list, the innovators

Colin Munro, Brendon McCullum, and Martin Guptill headline. New Zealand’s T20I template mixes brash intent with smart target management.

West Indies T20I centuries list, the six‑hitting school

Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis lead the story. The Caribbean template relies on deep hitting talent and a fearless approach to death overs.

Sri Lanka, South Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan

Sri Lanka’s list includes silky hundreds from top‑order batters comfortable against spin and pace. South Africa features David Miller and Rilee Rossouw, striking with violent acceleration. Bangladesh’s most notable T20I hundred belongs to Tamim Iqbal, a reminder of his range beyond ODI buildup. Afghanistan’s ledger features Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad, two very different batters united by fearlessness.

Women’s cricket and the rise of T20I hundreds

The women’s game has turned a corner in T20I hundreds. The list of centurions now includes multiple players with more than one T20I ton, and the list keeps growing with the rise of global domestic leagues.

• Meg Lanning’s T20I hundreds are studies in structure. She dominates gaps without slogging and times the acceleration to perfection.
• Deandra Dottin is power personified. When she goes, mid‑on and mid‑off become scenery, and the square boundary is a landing strip.
• Danielle Wyatt and Alyssa Healy bring different weapons—Wyatt with an attacking mindset from ball one, Healy with clean hitting arcs that turn powerplay fields into puzzles.
• Harmanpreet Kaur’s T20I hundred, built on hand speed and back‑foot power, signaled India’s shift toward a more aggressive T20 batting identity. Suzie Bates remains the template for timing over raw muscle.

Domestic circuits like the WBBL and emerging leagues have ensured more time at the crease for top‑order batters and more chances to construct innings. Women’s T20 hundreds are less common than in men’s play for structural reasons—fewer overs faced by the same top‑order stars across competitions—but the curve is rising. As calendar density grows, multiple‑hundred careers will become normal.

Tactical notes coaches actually teach to build hundreds

• First‑ten rule: If you’re an opener with century ambitions, anchor the lane between risk and reward across the first ten overs. Target the weaker bowler in that phase; take twelve off him, not six off everyone else.
• Spin reading: The difference between a fifty and a hundred is often picking the spinner’s release. Watch the seam, not the hand. Pre‑empt the straighter one with a late punch, reserve the slog‑sweep for when the length floats.
• Avoid double‑dot: Elite centurions rarely allow back‑to‑back dots after the powerplay unless genuinely re‑setting. A push single breaks the rhythm of the bowler and resets the field.
• Boundary clustering: Century makers create clusters of boundaries: a four, then a single, then a targeted six. The cluster damages the over’s economy and sets up the next over’s field.
• Death‑over discipline: The yorker that starts outside off will drift inside. The slower bouncer won’t climb as high late. Know your area—deep midwicket, extra cover, or straight—and back it.
• Fitness and repeatability: A T20 hundred requires sprints between overs, concentration resets, and the ability to reproduce mechanics after fatigue. The best work on leg strength for late‑innings stability.

Separating T20I, all T20, and league lists

One major pain point for fans and even broadcasters is the muddle between T20I centuries and league hundreds. Keeping them distinct is essential for accuracy.

• T20I centuries: Official internationals. More travel, more variety, more pressure. Conditions move faster here—new ball swings in one innings, older ball grips in the next on the same day.
• League centuries: Tend to happen in strings. The same square boundaries, similar pitches, familiar bowlers. Consistency is rewarded; scouting is deeper.
• All‑T20: The grand total. It’s the best snapshot of a player’s century‑making ability across contexts, but it must be read with nuance. An all‑format leader with many league hundreds but fewer T20I tons might be a conditions specialist; another with a more balanced split reads as a universal problem for bowlers.

Why openers dominate the most T20 hundreds lists

• Time on task: More balls faced equals more room to fix a slow start or convert a good one.
• Fielding restrictions: Two extra fielders in the ring can give an opener an additional boundary option, kick‑starting the innings.
• Role clarity: Many teams now script roles. If you know you have first crack at the hard ball and license to bat fifteen overs, the path to a hundred is clearer.

Counterexamples exist, but they are rare: middle‑order hundreds typically come when a top‑order collapse opens the door for an early entry, or when a batter is set by the tenth.

Venue, opposition, and batting position filters

Read any T20 hundreds list without filters, and you risk misunderstanding it. Filtering by venue, opposition, and batting position changes the picture.

• Venue: A flat deck at Bangalore or the Adelaide Oval inflates the chance of a hundred; a sticky night with heavy dew elsewhere deflates it. Centurions with a diverse venue spread deserve extra credit.
• Opposition: Hundreds against attacks with multiple international‑grade quicks and a mystery spinner carry more weight than those against thin bowling line‑ups.
• Batting position: An opener’s hundred is impressive; a No. 4 hundred can be miraculous. Bake that into how you judge leaderboards.

Players with most T20 centuries by batting hand and style

• Left‑handers: Gayle and Warner lead a lefty pack whose angle advantage against right‑arm pace is significant. Lefties often access cow corner and long‑on with a more natural swing path.
• Right‑handers: Buttler, Kohli, Babar, Rohit, Suryakumar—varied methods. Right‑handers often show more flexibility versus off‑spin and leg‑spin with inside‑out shots to extra cover.
• Style: Classical (Kohli, Babar, Gill) vs. Range hitters (Suryakumar, Maxwell) vs. Powerline hitters (Gayle, Warner). All can make hundreds; method influences venue and opposition success.

The rhythms of a T20 hundred in a chase

• Par reassessment: The batter constantly reassesses par. A hundred in a chase isn’t about a personal mark—it’s about the required rate not spiking past control. Smart centurions leave the dangerous bowler alone, target the fifth bowler, and trust a late burst.
• Dismissal risk: Getting out in the forties hurts a chase more than it hurts a setting innings. The great chasers protect their wicket across overs eight to twelve, then build again.
• Partnerships: Many T20 hundreds that win chases are built on one big partnership. The non‑striker’s strike‑rate matters. If he hits at a run‑a‑ball, the centurion must spike to maintain the equation.

A compact T20I hundreds listing by team leadership (illustrative)

• India: Led by Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav; followed by KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda.
• Pakistan: Led by Babar Azam; supported by Mohammad Rizwan.
• Australia: Led by Glenn Maxwell; joined by Aaron Finch and David Warner.
• England: Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan among the centurions.
• New Zealand: Colin Munro, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill tier.
• West Indies: Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis the headline acts.
• Sri Lanka: TM Dilshan among the notable centurions, with recent top‑order batters adding to the ledger.
• South Africa: David Miller and Rilee Rossouw lead the way, with Quinton de Kock in the club.
• Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal’s T20I century stands out.
• Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad headline.

Active players and the live race

If you prefer the “active players only” angle, the all‑T20 race is a thriller. Babar Azam keeps stacking hundreds across PSL and T20I; Jos Buttler threatens in every league he touches; Suryakumar Yadav is always a two‑innings surge away from reshaping the T20I table. Virat Kohli’s IPL hundreds remain appointment viewing; David Warner’s league resume means he’s never far from a three‑figure night. Glenn Maxwell’s T20I tally can tick upward in a single series.

A short, useful table of anchor records

Record highlights

• Most T20 centuries (all T20): Chris Gayle
• Most T20I centuries by a player: Glenn Maxwell and Rohit Sharma (joint leaders)
• Most centuries in IPL: Virat Kohli
• Fastest T20 century: Chris Gayle (30 balls)
• Fastest T20I century: record under 35 balls
• Highest individual score in T20: Chris Gayle 175*
• Highest individual score in T20I: Aaron Finch 172
• Only player with multiple T20 World Cup centuries: Chris Gayle

How to read strike rate, not out, and impact

A hundred at a strike rate near two hundred is a batter running hot, but durability matters too. A 100* carries extra weight because it suggests control over the innings. Dismissal timing impacts a game more than the raw number at the top. Centuries while being the only set batter in a low‑scoring scrap deserve high impact marks.

Compare this to a scenario with two set batters and docile conditions: a hundred might be less impactful than a blistering fifty at the death. That’s why “man of the match” often tracks the hundred but not always. Advanced analysts tag match phase impact, bowling quality, and partnership leverage to judge a T20 hundred’s true value.

First‑time centurions and the psychology of conversion

The first T20 hundred often changes a batter. Suddenly, the horizons of what’s possible in this format widen. The second one comes easier: the brain now recognizes the route from thirty to fifty to eighty to a hundred as a series of familiar lanes. KL Rahul’s early IPL hundreds had that feel—cool conversion once he crossed sixty. Shubman Gill’s late bloom into a century-maker felt like a final layer added to already elegant batting.

Most T20 centuries by Indians, left‑handers, and other micro‑lists

• Indian players with most T20 centuries: Virat Kohli in leagues, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav in T20I, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill rising. Hardik Pandya’s role often limits hundred opportunities, but his finishing power inflates team totals that deny others the time to reach three figures.
• Left‑handers: Chris Gayle and David Warner headline; Evin Lewis and Ben McDermott sit in the league tier with noteworthy tallies.
• Wicketkeepers: Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Nicholas Pooran, KL Rahul (in stints) contribute to the keeper‑batter century cohort. Keeping duties rarely mute the bat for these modern athletes.

The state of the art: what has changed about T20 hundreds

• Data‑driven targeting: Batters now arrive at a venue with comprehensive maps. They know the short boundary, the wind direction, and the bowler whose wide‑yorker morphs into a half‑volley under dew.
• Strength and conditioning: Late‑innings stability depends on lower‑body strength. Watch a centurion’s base at the finish; it barely wobbles. Strength equals precision under fatigue.
• Bat technology: Smaller edges now travel. Centuries once required perfect contact; now, good contact suffices. This shifts risk calculus: a slightly mishit inside‑out shot still clears.
• Bowling countermeasures: To curb the hundred, bowling teams hold back match‑up specialists. Off‑spinners for lefties, left‑armers who shape across right‑handers, wrist‑spinners who can land wrong‑uns under pressure. The hundred is not given; it must be taken through these traps.

A practical league snapshot, one line at a time

• IPL most hundreds list: Virat Kohli leads; Buttler, Gayle, Rahul, Warner, Watson, AB, Gill, Samson form the chase group.
• PSL centuries list: Kamran Akmal, Babar Azam, Usman Khan headline; Jason Roy and Sharjeel Khan in the pack.
• BBL most centuries: Ben McDermott in the lead cluster; Glenn Maxwell’s ceiling matches anyone’s on any night.
• CPL most centuries: Chris Gayle’s home turf; Evin Lewis and Lendl Simmons notable.
• Vitality Blast most centuries: Luke Wright and Michael Klinger represent the long‑form county T20 specialists who mastered English conditions.
• SA20, ILT20: Jos Buttler, Faf du Plessis, Alex Hales, and a band of globe‑trotters will redraw these tables season by season.
• BPL and LPL: Gayle’s BPL legacy looms large; LPL’s rising middle class has begun to add to the ledger.

How many T20 hundreds should an elite top‑order be expected to score

The question hides a trap. Hundreds are spiky outcomes. A batter can be in century‑making form and finish at ninety‑odd because a teammate finishes the chase early. Or the team’s plan is to share acceleration, suppressing individual peaks. That said, across a long career, players with superior elite skills usually build a respectable T20 hundreds list. Serious outliers—like Gayle at the top—combine an uncommon physical package with thousands of balls faced in high‑scoring contexts.

Why some great T20I batters have fewer hundreds

• Role: A finisher may swing games with thirties at silly strike‑rates. That role suppresses hundreds.
• Team balance: Deeper batting encourages faster scoring earlier, ending innings before a batter can reach a hundred.
• Conditions: National teams that play on low‑scoring surfaces produce fewer centuries; their greats might be busy scoring priceless sixties.

Reading the tea leaves: who’s next to climb

• Suryakumar Yadav has the skill set to keep stacking T20I hundreds, especially on flat decks with short straight boundaries.
• Babar Azam will continue to add across PSL and T20I; his engine is too reliable not to.
• Jos Buttler’s league calendar means more starts as an opener, more opportunity to convert.
• Shubman Gill’s method screams repeatability; his ceiling as a century‑maker is likely to rise as he plays more seasons as a designated opener.
• Glenn Maxwell will always be one purple patch away from nudging the T20I record higher.

A compact table for the most sought‑after facts

Key leaders and benchmarks

• All‑format most T20 centuries: Chris Gayle
• Players with most T20 centuries, active race: Babar Azam, Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli, David Warner in the chase pack
• Most T20I centuries by a player: Glenn Maxwell and Rohit Sharma (joint)
• IPL centuries list by player, top end: Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler, Chris Gayle
• T20 World Cup most centuries, unique holder of multiple: Chris Gayle
• Fastest T20 hundred: Chris Gayle (30 balls)
• Fastest T20I hundred: below 35 balls benchmark
• Highest T20 score: 175* (Chris Gayle)
• Highest T20I score: 172 (Aaron Finch)

A note on data fluidity

T20 is a live wire. Lists stretch and twist with every tournament cycle. League stacks are especially fluid, with overseas pros landing in new conditions and tapping rich veins of form. The leaders you see today are the leaders for this snapshot; the race is always on.

Closing thoughts

Centuries will keep coming faster. Coaches will design new shapes. Bat manufacturers will shave edges that fly like bullets. Fielders will learn to jump higher; bowling coaches will find new tricks after the knuckleball. And yet, the core won’t change. A T20 hundred is still a story with a beginning, a middle, and a finish. Patience, poise, and violence—each in the right proportion.

If you love this format, keep an eye on the split: T20I versus leagues. Watch the chasers. Track the venues. And never miss a chance to see a set batter cross sixty with overs left; that’s when the air changes, and that’s when a new entry on the most T20 centuries lists begins to write itself.