T20 international cricket has gained massive popularity in the last decade. The ICC T20 World Cup of 2007 proved to be the launching pad for this format. Before the global event, the fans and the players treated T20 as exhibition cricket. Many fans would remember how lightly Australia and New Zealand played the first T20I. However, the same is not the case now.
Every cricket board aims to have a top T20I team. Even the rising cricketing countries are aiming the same. In the previous T20 World Cup, fans got to see a team from Oman. A few years ago, Afghanistan took giant strides in this format to become a Test-playing nation in the future. The batsmen have dominated the T20I games and here are the five Indian batsmen who have ruled the ICC Rankings since 2016.
2016 – Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli has owned the bowlers in every format. Although he cannot hit big shots, Kohli has done well in the T20Is. He was the world no. 1 T20I batsman in 2016. Virat had 820 rating points then. He was the only batsman with 800+ rating points on the ICC Rankings.
Virat has done a phenomenal job in T20Is for India. Speaking of his numbers in 2016, he scored 641 runs in just 13 innings. Another interesting thing is that he did not score a single hundred. This statistic highlights his marvellous consistency. Kohli had a batting average of 106.83 that year in T20Is!
2017 – Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli lost his number one position to Aaron Finch by the year 2017 ended. Still, he was the highest-ranked Indian on the batsmen’s rankings. Kohli played ten innings in 2017. He aggregated 299 runs at an average of 37.38. Also, his strike rate that year was 152.55.
Kohli was only eight points behind Finch on the ICC T20I Rankings in 2017. Apart from Kohli, KL Rahul also featured in the Top 5. Virat showed tremendous improvement in his T20I game after 2017. No other batsman has better chasing skills than him. His world number 2 finish shows the same.
2018 – KL Rahul
As mentioned earlier, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were the two Indian batsmen in the Top 5 of 2017. In 2018, Rahul overtook Kohli on the table. Babar Azam ended the year as World No. 1. Colin Munro, Finch, Evin Lewis, and Fakhar Zaman completed the Top 5. Rahul was at the seventh position.
The wicket-keeper was the only Indian with 700+ rating points. Rahul aggregated 324 runs in 13 T20Is of 2018. He scored one century and one fifty. His strike rate was just below 150. Rohit Sharma joined him in the Top 10 in the 2018 Rankings.
2019 – KL Rahul
KL Rahul once again accomplished this feat in the year 2019. The right-handed batsman moved up one position to finish in the sixth position. It is noteworthy that Rahul had received a suspension earlier that year. Still, he came back strong. Rahul ended the year with 734 T20I rating points.
In 2019, three Indian batsmen finished in the Top 10. Virat Kohli was at the tenth position while Rohit Sharma was at the ninth rank. Rahul scored 356 runs in nine T20Is of 2019. His batting average rose to 44.50. In 2019, Rahul recorded four fifties for the Indian T20I team.
2020 – KL Rahul
KL Rahul completed a hat-trick of Indian number 1 finishes in 2020. He scored 404 runs in 11 T20Is. Rahul played a vital role in India’s 5-0 series win over New Zealand. In 10 innings, he recorded four fifties. His highest score in 2020 was 57*.
Speaking of his rank, Rahul attained the third position. He had a massive rating of 816 points. Also, he finished in the Top 3 for the first time. Virat Kohli held the seventh rank with 697 rating points. It will be interesting to see if Rahul can become World No. 1 next year. He is just a few points away from Dawid Malan.
