2020 was a unique year as not a lot of teams got to play as many ODI games as they would have liked to because of the lockdown imposed in different parts of the world citing the dangers of COVID 19 pandemic. There was a period of almost 4 months where no cricket happened at all in any part of the world.
However, there were still a few teams which got to play a fair few ODI games, not only at the start of the year when the world wasn’t hit by the pandemic but towards the latter end of the year as well when the curve of the new cases came down in different countries. Here are the 5 batsmen who scored most runs in ODI cricket in 2020 –
1. Aaron Finch (Australia)
Aaron Finch was one of those players who played the most amount of ODI cricket this year. He captained the Australian squad in the ODI series against India at the start of the year and then he played an ODI game against New Zealand as well before the lockdown was imposed in Australia.
Once the lockdown was eased in a few months’ time, Finch travelled with the Aussie team to England for another ODI series and then he played his third ODI series of the year against India earlier this month. In a total of 13 ODIs that Finch played this year, he scored 673 runs at an average of 56.08 with 5 fifties and 2 hundreds.
2. Steve Smith (Australia)
Steve Smith was also a part of the Australian squad for all the ODI series that Australia played this year, but he had to sit out of the 3 matches against England because of the concussion issue he sustained in the T20I series prior to that.
However, despite missing those 3 ODIs, Smith didn’t fall too far behind Finch in terms of scoring the most ODI runs through the year. Smith scored 568 runs in 10 games at an average of 63.11 and a whopping strike rate of 106.56. He went past the three figure mark twice as well.
3. Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
It’s not really a surprise to see so many Australian players in the list of leading run-scorers in ODI cricket this year because they were the ones who played more ODI games in 2020 as compared to the players of other teams. As far as Labuschagne is concerned, this was his first proper season in white-ball cricket with the Australian team and he did reasonably well.
With Steve Smith batting at no. 3, Labuschagne had to bat at no. 4 which is a very tricky position as you have to bat at different tempo while batting at no. 4, but Labuschagne adjusted to the role alright and scored 473 runs in 13 games at an average of 39.41 with 3 half-centuries and a century.
4. David Warner (Australia)
David Warner has always been consistent for Australia batting at the top of the order in ODI cricket for so many years and this year was no different for him as he piled on a lot of runs again and stitched quite a few useful partnerships with his opening partner Aaron Finch upfront.
Warner might not have been as ultra-aggressive in terms of his tempo this year as he used to be in the past, but he has been as consistent as ever and was one of the 4 Aussie batsmen who crossed the 450-run mark this year in ODI cricket. In the 12 ODI games that Warner played in 2020, he scored 465 runs at an average of 42.27 with three fifties and a hundred.
5. KL Rahul (India)
India were another team which played three ODI series this year and while they lost two out of them, KL Rahul was a stand out performer for them despite the fact that his batting position was re-shifted, and he had to bat at no. 5 in ODIs as India were lacking a quality middle-order batsman who could finish the innings.
Rahul put his hand up and accepted the challenge of batting at no. 5 and not only did he settle down quite well at his new batting position, but he also made a match-defining difference for India as well on a couple of occasions. Rahul scored 443 for India in 9 ODIs in 2020, averaging 55.37 with the bat.
