The concept of T20 cricket was first introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. After the success, the first Men’s T20 international was held between Australia and New Zealand on February 17, 2005, at Eden Park in Auckland. Since then, the number of T20Is have been played between various nations.
The past decade saw 897 T20Is, and 2,49,578 runs were scored by the batsmen belonging to different teams. There have been four T20I World Cups in the last ten years. In a colossal list of batters scoring the maximum runs, few amongst them grabbed the highest ratings issued by ICC every year.
England’s power-hitter Kevin Pietersen kicked off the business in 2010 when he earned the highest ratings. The right-hander grabbed 847 points and topped the ICC rankings that year.
Another England player and current T20 skipper of the team Eoin Morgan under whose captaincy the English team won their first 50-over World Cup tournament held in the last year, rocked the ICC rankings table in 2011. He earned 821 ratings.
The year 2012 belonged to former Australian opener Shane Watson. The 38-year-old batsman claimed 799 points in that year and trounced every other batsman.
England batsmen have well dominated the T20 format as in the year 2013; Alex Hales bagged the maximum points (842) and became the No.1 batsman in ICC T20I rankings. The following year saw the supremacy of India skipper Virat Kohli. He became the No.1 batsman by grabbing 897 ratings. Kohli didn’t just stop there as in 2016; he again reached the top position by claiming 820 points.
Australia’s Aaron Finch ruled 2015 and 2017. He earned 854 and 784 points in the given years.
The young sensation from Pakistan, Babar Azam, had been outstanding in the shortest format, and hence he topped the ICC rankings for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. Azam bagged 858 and 879 ratings.
➤ One decade
➤ 897 T20Is
➤ 249578 runs 🤯Here are the batsmen that finished at the top of the ICC T20I Rankings in the last ten years 👇 pic.twitter.com/mljjwUkJFU
— ICC (@ICC) December 30, 2019
Here’s a list of batsmen with the maximum ratings in the last decade:
- 2010 – Kevin Pietersen (847)
- 2011 – Eoin Morgan (821)
- 2012 – Shane Watson (799)
- 2013 – Alex Hales (842)
- 2014 – Virat Kohli (897)
- 2015 – Aaron Finch (854)
- 2016 – Virat Kohli (820)
- 2017 – Aaron Finch (784)
- 2018 – Babar Azam (858)
- 2019 – Babar Azam (879)
