3 players who have hit the most international sixes

The importance of big-hitting players today cannot be overstated, especially given that limited-overs cricket has virtually surpassed the traditional five-day Tests as the sport's preferred format.

A player who can tonk the ball at will is a requisite for any particular side in a white-ball encounter. As the game progresses day by day, we are witnessing many more attacking players staking their dominance all over the world.

Since cricket's inception, we have seen numerous players who possessed exceptional striking abilities. Sir Viv Richards, Sanath Jayasuriya, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, and Ab de Villiers are some attacking players to name a few.

On that note, let's look at the top three players who have hit the highest number of sixes in international cricket.

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#3. Shahid Afridi - 476 sixes

Shahid Afridi during South Africa v Pakistan T20

Perhaps Pakistan's all-time greatest hard-hitting batter, Shahid Afridi had the ability to change the course of the game within a few moments.

Since his debut in 1996, Afridi went on to hit 476 maximums in the 508 innings he featured in across formats. The former Pakistani all-rounder had some brute force in his game and was one of the world's most explosive batters during the early 2000s.

Out of his 476 sixes, Afridi hit 351 of them in the one-day internationals, while 52 and 73 were hit during Test matches and T20Is, respectively. Interestingly, 25.5% of Afridi's 11,196 international runs came in the form of sixes.

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#2. Rohit Sharma - 477 sixes

Rohit Sharma during India v New Zealand - T20 International

The Indian with the most number of sixes in international matches is none other than 'Hitman' Rohit Sharma.

The current Indian skipper went past Shahid Afridi on the list during his last game against the West Indies. He smashed three maximums to take his tally to 477 sixes in 427 innings.

The Mumbai batter has the gift of having an effortless strokeplay and has almost all the effective shots in the book in his arsenal. Rohit is arguably the best ODI player of the current generation and has clobbered 250 sixes in the format. The highest T20I run-getter has also hit the ball 163 times over the ropes in the T20 internationals.

The 35-year-old has the most sixes of any active player, and he will have plenty of opportunities to add to that tally over upcoming India fixtures.

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#1. Chris Gayle - 553 sixes

West Indies v India - One Day International Series

Unsurprisingly, the 'Universe Boss' from Jamaica, Chris Gayle, holds the record of smashing the highest number of maximums on the international stage with as many as 553 sixes in 551 innings across formats.

Irrespective of the format and conditions, the mighty left-hander could've easily cleared any ground on the globe. Considered the king of T20 cricket, Gayle has clobbered 124 sixes in T20Is. He has smashed 331 ODI maximums while his red-ball maximums total 98. The flamboyant dasher has even hit 357 sixes in the IPL (the most by any player in IPL history).

Gayle accumulated 3,318 runs out of his 19,594 international runs tally in sixes alone. While there have been quite a few renowned swashbuckling players, none of them have ever amused the audience like Christopher Henry Gayle did.