The year 2021 was fully packed with T20 matches and it was a thrilling treat for the fans after coming back from a dull cricketing year in 2020. The T20 matches all over the world were held back to back and each of them was as intense as the others.
The year witnessed some of the extreme T20 madness right from plenty of International T20 series, Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Caribbean Premier League, and Big Bash to the most important event of this year — ICC T20 world cup.
This format is a highly demanding one and it is vital for a batter to not only hit runs but also to be aggressive. And for the bowlers, wickets are necessary but only along with bowling economical spells. A lot of players performed consistently this year helping their team win the games. Here we bring you the top 10 cricketers who were best in the shortest format of the game in 2021.
Here are the Top 10 T20 cricketers of 2021:
10. Rashid Khan
Rashid Khan is one of the best T20 bowlers the game has ever witnessed. The 23-year-old leggie made his T20I debut for Afghanistan in 2015 when he was just 17 years old and has been the flag bearer of the team since then. Rashid is currently ranked fifth in the ICC rankings amongst the bowlers in the shortest format of the game.
He has plenty of records to his name. Rashid was the youngest player to reach the top spot in ICC T20I bowlers’ rankings and he took the least time in reaching the 50 and 100 wickets mark in the format. Like the previous seasons, he has had a wonderful T20 season in 2021 too.
Rashid has played 8 T20Is this year and picked 14 wickets and has an outstanding economy rate of just 6.63. He was also the highest overseas wicket-taker in the IPL this season with 18 scalps. Being a much-demanded cricketer in this format, he has never failed to satisfy the teams he has played for.
9. Harshal Patel
Harshal Patel- the epitome of hard work, shattered many records in this year’s IPL. He has been featuring in the IPL since 2012 and has never been such a sensational bowler till this year arrived. Harshal represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore in this season.
Patel played a total of 15 IPL matches and picked 32 wickets which are the joint highest and the highest ever wickets taken by an Indian in an edition of the IPL. In considering his fame, he is from rags to riches now. These 32 wickets also include a four-wicket haul (hat trick) and a fifer.
The 31-year-old bowler was honored with the Purple cap, Gamechanger of the season, and most valuable player of the tournament in IPL 2021. His form in the IPL earned him his debut in the T20I format against New Zealand. He proved his worth in the blues too, by bowling a spell of 2/25 and was the man of the match in his debut.
8. Ruturaj Gaikwad
The sparkling star of the Indian Premier League was Ruturaj Gaikwad from the Chennai Super Kings. He made his debut in the 2020 IPL and scored consecutive fifties in the last three matches of the league. He was trusted and given the opening position in the team this year.
Ruturaj kept his promises and continued the form in IPL 2021 right from where he left in the previous season. He sealed his opening spot along with Faf du Plessis and gathered a plethora of runs for his team. He was awarded the orange cap in the tournament for scoring the most number of runs (635 runs in 16 matches).
The 24-year-old hit his maiden century in the IPL off just 60 deliveries and had a strike rate of 136.26 in the tournament. Ruturaj is also one of the retained players for CSK for the upcoming season. He also had a thunderous season in the domestic circuit as he hit hat-trick fifties in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
7. KL Rahul
KL Rahul, the flamboyant T20 player added this year too into one of his bests. His statistics in the IPL this year, have made him feature on this list. Even though Punjab Kings did not do well in the tournament, Rahul was the only never-dying star of the team.
The 29-year-old batter has been stacking over 600 runs in the IPL tournament for the past few years, and this year has been nothing different. He hit 626 runs and finished third on the orange cap list. In the International arena, his start to the year was bad with a poor streak of runs.
Apart from the first two matches in the T20 world cup, Rahul hit hat trick fifties after that in which he scored the second-fastest fifty by an Indian and the fastest of the tournament in just 18 deliveries. He closed his tally this year with 289 runs in 11 matches.
6. Jos Buttler
Jos Buttler, the English wicketkeeper has been ranked at six for his splendid form this year. He is always known for his aggressive approach to the game and his intent was clear throughout the year. His season started amazingly with a good band of scores.
The vice-captain of England had a special season as he scored his maiden century in the T20Is in WC. He was unstoppable throughout the year and scored 589 runs at an average of 65.44. He scored these runs at a brilliant strike rate of 143.30.
Buttler just played the first half of the IPL and had an extraordinary time scoring 254 runs in just seven matches. He also hit his maiden hundred in the IPL this year and went on to score 124 which is the 10th highest individual score in the tournament. Overall this year had started and now ended as one of the best in his career.
5. Mitchell Marsh
Mitchell Marsh would definitely feature on the list of surprise entries to the national team in 2021. He has been playing in the T20 Australian squad for 10 years now and did nothing special to retain his spot in the XI and hence was on and off from the team.
However, this year Marsh was exceptional. He was promoted up the order and batted at number three after Australia demoted their constant №3 batter, Steve Smith. This one change transformed the fortunes for Marsh and the team. He bowled 20 overs and picked 8 wickets at an economy rate of 7.35.
In the course of the year 2021, he played a total of 21 matches and piled up 5 half-centuries. He averaged 36.88 and hit 627 runs this year. His heroics of 77* off 50 deliveries in the T20 world cup final against New Zealand aided the team to lift their maiden T20 WC title.
4. Tabraiz Shamsi
The rare commodity of the chinaman bowling — Tabraiz Shamsi was a sensation this year in the T20s. He has been a consistent performer in the leagues all over the world and is a much-demanded cricketer in this format. He played 22 T20Is this year and was also ranked the №1 bowler in T20Is in 2021.
The Proteas bowler picked up 36 wickets in those 22 games at an amazing average of 13.3. He had two four-wicket hauls during this period. Shamsi was picked in the toughest cricketing league of IPL by the Rajasthan Royals, but he couldn’t do much as he just played one game for them.
The 31-year-old bowler has created an impact wherever he has played. He is also the joint highest wicket-taker in T20Is this year along with Wanindu Hasaranga. But, Hasaranga has occupied the second position as he has played two lesser innings and was good with the bat too, and Shamsi is ranked fourth on this list since he has played 22 innings this year.
3. Babar Azam
Babar Azam under his captaincy has shown to the world Pakistan’s new brand of cricket. This year for him and for the team is an indelible one. He excelled both as a batter and skipper in this format and was consistent throughout the year.
Babar was very confident with the bat right from the start of this year when he scored his maiden century and his highest score of 122 came against South Africa in April. He continued this form throughout and was the highest run-getter of the Pakistan Super League with 554 runs in just 11 matches.
After playing a huge number of 29 T20Is this year, he managed to score 939 runs with a strike rate of 127.58. The Lahore-born cricketer guided the team unbeaten till the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup and was the highest run-scorer of the tournament with 303 runs. He is currently the top batter in the ICC T20I rankings.
2. Wanindu Hasaranga
Wanindu Hasaranga of Sri Lanka features second on this list owing to his explicit performance in T20 cricket with the ball this year. He is now placed at the top of ICC T20I rankings with 797 ratings. Hasaranga troubled almost all the batters with his beautiful variations in wrist spin.
The 24-year-old debuted in this format for Sri Lanka in 2019 and has emerged as the best in the world in just two years. He features predominantly on this list for his highest ever wickets taken to record in a calendar year.
On playing 20 T20I matches, he took 36 wickets with an economy of just 5.44. Hasaranga was the highest wicket-taker in the T20 world cup. He was effective in the ball both economy-wise and in the wickets he plundered. With the bat, he accumulated 196 runs in 16 innings with a strike rate of 120.98 and hit his maiden fifty this year.
1. Mohammad Rizwan
This year has turned out to be a memorable one for the wicket-keeper batter of Pakistan Mohammad Rizwan. He has been a part of the T20I side since 2015, and even if we add his runs in all the years together, his career runs are just less than a quarter of that he scored in 2021.
Rizwan played a total of 29 T20I matches and stupendously averaged 73.66 which is an unbelievable achievement for this format. He is the highest run-scorer ever in the T20 internationals in a calendar year with 1326 runs which includes 12 fifties and a century.
The other batters are nowhere near him and this would probably take years for the others to break this record. His strike rate of 134.89 was impressive as he had 134.89 throughout this year. Rizwan’s record in the leagues such as the Pakistan Super League was also amazing as he was the second-highest run-getter with 470 runs in 11 matches.
