ICC has announced the awards for the year 2021. The same will be awarded in January. Preceding the ceremony, the council has also declared the nominations for the same. In this article, we take a look at the player who could win ICC Men’s T20I Player Of The Year 2021.
The nominations for ICC Men’s T20I Player Of The Year 2021
T20I cricket had a lot of relevance in the year 2021. In 2020, the T20 World Cup was supposed to happen. However, due to the pandemic, the tournament was pushed to 2021. Also, the host country changed from India to UAE and Oman. Since the T20 World Cup was happening after a gap of five years, there was a lot of attention that the competition generated.
In preparation for the event, most teams involved themselves in multiple T20I encounters. Unlike 2020, 2021 was better in terms of hosting tournaments due to regularized bio-bubble practices. Hence, ICC has enough sample size to decide the winner of the award.
Meanwhile, the four nominations have been announced by ICC. One of Mohammad Rizwan, Mitchell Marsh, Wanindu Hasaranga and Jos Buttler will win the award.
Who might win it?
Consistency is a key factor for a player to win this award. Hence, Mohammad Rizwan looks prime for becoming the Men’s T20I player of the year 2021. In this year, Rizwan played 29 games and scored 1326 runs. He was the highest run-getter in the format. The Pakistan player’s runs came at an average of 73.66 and a strike rate of 134.89. Rizwan accumulated one century and twelve fifties in 2021. Apart from his batting contributions, he also accounted for 24 dismissals behind the stumps.
Pakistan had a fine year in the T20 format in 2021. They also managed to reach the semis of the T20 World Cup. Rizwan was a major reason for this success. Almost inevitably, he provided starts in the powerplay and went on to make a big score.
Apart from doing well in T20Is, Rizwan also had a sensational year in franchise-based leagues. Across all T20 games he played in 2021, he scored more than 2000 runs. Hence, ahead of the other nominations, Rizwan has a great chance of winning the honour.
