In addition to its prestigious yearly awards, International Cricket Council announced new awards to honour the best performers of the last decade. One of them is the T20I player of the decade award with the nominees’ list including the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch, Lasith Malinga, Chris Gayle, Imran Tahir and Rashid Khan. All the above-mentioned players can stake a claim for the best player award in their own way. However, we will look at the favourites for the award considering a player’s consistency in the T20I format from 2010-2019,
4. Lasith Malinga
The Sri Lankan spearhead might be at the twilight of his career but he has been the most feared bowler in the T-20 format for well over a decade. He is the most prolific wicket-taker in the history of T-20 Internationals with 107 wickets in 83 innings.
In the last decade alone he has picked up 83 wickets and his most memorable spell came in 2019 against New Zealand when he picked up four wickets in four deliveries against New Zealand and recorded career-best figures of 5/6. He picked up eight wickets in Sri Lanka’s run to the World T-20 final in 2012 and picked up five wickets in the 2014 edition of the T-20 World Cup which Sri Lanka won.
3. Chris Gayle
Universally accepted as the numero uno of T-20 batting, Gayle has struggled with injuries in the past five years and has played only 13 games in that time span. But he was outstanding in the first part of the last decade, scoring nine half-centuries from 2010-2015 and a 48 ball century against England in the 2016 World Cup.
In the 2012 World Cup, he was instrumental in West Indies’ victorious campaign scoring three half-centuries including a swashbuckling 75* against Australia in the semi-final. Even with retirement rumours surrounding him, Gayle has expressed his desire to continue playing for West Indies even at the age of 41.
2. Virat Kohli
Contrasting to his test and ODI careers, Kohli had a slow start to his T-20I career as he scored only 87 runs in 6 innings in 2010 and 2011. His big breakthrough came in 2012 when he was consistently given opportunities at number 3 and repaid the management’s faith by amassing 471 runs in 13 innings. He reached his pinnacle in 2016 when he scored 641 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 140.26.
The highlight of his T20I career was the half-century he scored against Australia in Mohali in the 2016 World Cup, an innings regarded by many as the best in T20I history. After a lean patch in 2018 where he dropped down the order to give chances to others, he was back to his best in 2019 averaging 77.67 and striking at 147.94.
1. Aaron Finch
Finch’s record speaks for itself as he has scored 2114 runs at an average of 38.44 at a phenomenal strike rate of 154.65. He made his debut in 2011 but 2013 was the year in which he showed his full potential in the shortest format as he scored 262 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 194. In that same year, he scored a 63 ball 156 against England which was the first 150+ plus score in T-20 cricket. He outdid himself in 2018 by scoring 172 runs in 76 balls against Zimbabwe at Harare.
The only disappointment in his glittering career is the T20 World Cup which Australia has never won. Finch will be hoping that 2021 is the year when he leads the Australian team to T20 World Cup glory.
