Each week The Cricketer picks a team of the week from the standout performers in the T20 Blast
It didn't take long for the Irishman to fire. On his debut for Birmingham Bears, he crashed a rapid hundred, hitting five successive sixes against James Sales in a thumping win over Northamptonshire.
The innings – 119 off 51 balls in a rain-shortened affair – included nine fours and 10 sixes, giving Stirling a new career-best, with Birmingham one of two teams in the country to have begun with three wins out of three.
Who'd have thought it? If Birmingham are one of the two teams to have started with three straight wins, you'd perhaps have got long odds on Middlesex being the other, given their historic form in this competition. But with Eskinazi at the top of the order, they have one of the leading players in the tournament's recent past.
He was the second-highest run-scorer in 2020 and eighth last time around. He started this edition in remarkable fashion, thrashing Gloucestershire's bowlers all over Radlett for 87 off just 37 deliveries, dealing mostly in fours across a rapid outfield.
Ironically, the two games in which Rizwan made runs ended in defeats by Glamorgan and Gloucestershire. He fought a mostly lone hand on his Blast debut, before railing against an above-par total in the second.
It was only when he missed out against Kent that Sussex's experienced white-ball side finally got on the board. Only Stirling and Harry Brook have made more runs at this early stage than the Pakistan wicketkeeper.
Paul Stirling has started well for Birmingham Bears (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Perhaps not as high-profile a name as some of Somerset's recent overseas recruits in this competition – Devon Conway and Babar Azam have been at Taunton in the not-too-distant past – Rossouw is as explosive as any on the franchise circuit and represents a shrewd piece of business.
With Peter Siddle and Marchant de Lange both on the county's staff already, there was an expectation that they might take the overseas spots in a side that came so close to winning the trophy last year. But the chance to add a high-class batter to the exciting youth of Will Smeed and Tom Banton appears to be one worth taking: two matches, two rapid half centuries.
Northeast was dropped following Hampshire's first match of last year's T20 Blast and left the county soon afterwards. In the first two games of this campaign – in his first season with Glamorgan – he hit fifties against Sussex (to set up a win) and against Surrey (in defeat).
In the process, he has gone past 3,000 T20 runs and is the fifth-leading run-scorer at this early stage of the tournament.
The Yorkshireman might just be done with county cricket for a little while now, with Test honours to fight for and the Blast drifting away from his mind.
Typically in the early throes of this golden summer, he has carried his first-class form into the white-ball game, where he made his international debut over the winter either side of spells with Hobart Hurricanes and Lahore Qalandars. His only blemish came with the final ball of the Roses clash, missing a straight delivery from Richard Gleeson to force a tie.
Harry Brook has enjoyed a phenomenal season so far (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
The 34-year-old seamer hadn't played a T20 match of any description since 2019 ahead of this summer, such have been his injury troubles in the time since. But under Eskinazi's stewardship, he has pushed the ball across left-handers and hit a heavy length.
There's not much more mystery to the former England seamer than that, but it has worked a treat so far. He has seven wickets in three games at 10.14 apiece. His economy rate – 5.91 runs per over – is all the more impressive.
It should be no surprise that the leading spinner so far in this year's competition is the Twenty20 Cup's all-time highest wicket-taker.
The left-armer is six away from becoming the first man to 200, pulling away from Samit Patel in the process. He has started in style: seven wickets in three games, an economy only just north of six runs per over.
The South African went round the park during Somerset's win over Kent at Canterbury – one of those nights where pace on the ball went the journey – but he responded in some style in the county's next match, against 2019 winners Essex. He claimed figures of 4 for 9, including a maiden.
Richard Gleeson picked up his first five-wicket haul in T20 cricket (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
In his final year on the circuit ahead of a well-earned retirement, the Glamorgan seamer – turning 41 on Tuesday – is the early leader in the wicket-taking stakes.
The Australian has nine in three games, including one of three five-wicket hauls taken so far in this year's Blast. He has only been rewarded with a single victory, and his five-fer actually came in a losing cause against Surrey's star-studded line-up.
The success of the Lancashire seamer is one of the heartening stories of this year's competition so far after his trouble with injury. He signed a white-ball contract with the county in March, having been ruled out of The Hundred last summer.
In 2021, he played only three matches and has struggled with back injuries for the last two years. So, it was a cause for celebration when he picked up five Worcestershire wickets last week.
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