5 Batsmen who ruled No.1 T20I ranking for many years

It was in 2005 that Twenty20 internationals kickstarted. Australia played New Zealand in the first-ever game and the format has just got better year after year. In fact, it can be said that T20s have revolutionized the way cricket is played and has grown.

Over the years, there have been multiple batsmen who ruled the roast in the shortest format. T20s are the slam-bang version of cricket and you hardly expect anyone to be very consistent. However, there are batsmen who have found ways to be consistent in T20I cricket. Hence, that reflects in the rankings as well.

Thus, here we take a look back at five batsmen who ruled the No. 1 T20I ranking for a long time.

1. Babar Azam (2018-Present)

Babar Azam is one of the most exciting batsmen in world cricket at the moment. In fact, he is Pakistan’s best batsman at the moment across all formats. He is moving forward very quickly and has done really well across all three formats.

However, Azam’s consistency is best in the shortest format. Only two cricketers in history have a career average in excess of 50 in T20Is and Azam is one among them. In fact, his average of 54.22 is the best amongst all players who have batted at least 20 times in T20I cricket.

The Pakistan superstar generally opens the batting in the shortest format and invariably gives his team a solid start. There is nothing too fancy about the way he goes about business. Azam plays classical cricket shots and yet scores heavily. He ascended to the top of the ICC T20I Rankings last year in October. He still is at the top and has a created a good gap between him and the second-placed Glenn Maxwell.

2. Alex Hales (2013-2014)

Alex Hales may currently be out of favor from the England white-ball sides but he was a vital part of the change after the 2015 World Cup drubbing. However, long before that drubbing, Hales was wreaking havoc in the T20 format.

He made his T20I debut for England in 2011 and scored an unbeaten 62 in his second game. It was in 2012 when he really got a long rope and established himself as England’s T20 opener. In 2013, his numbers got better. After scoring 343 runs (10 innings) in 2012, Hales amassed 247 runs at an average of 49.40 in 2013 and that’s when he rose to the top of the ICC rankings.

The opener continued to impress throughout 2014 as well. He was one of England’s key members in the World T20 in 2014. However, he soon lost his No. 1 ranking to Virat Kohli who was outstanding in T20 cricket during that period.

3. Graeme Smith (2006, 2009)

This is a very surprising name on the list. Graeme Smith will go down as one of the best captains South Africa has ever produced. His grit and fight at the top of the order is also remembered. However, he wasn’t really known as a T20 player. But he proved people wrong.

Back then when very less T20Is were played, Graeme Smith was very consistent. He scored 61 in his first T20I in 2005 and continued his good form in 2006 as well. Hence, it was in 2006 that he rose to No. 1 in the rankings. Meanwhile, there was a slight dip in 2007 and he played just one T20I in 2008.

However, in 2009, he was back at the top. The Proteas skipper struck 278 runs in eight innings and was back at the top of the ranking charts for the shortest format.

4. Aaron Finch (2015-2018)

For almost five years, Aaron Finch held the record for the highest individual T20I score. In August 2013, he smashed 156 against England in Southampton. However, in July 2018, Finch himself broke the record when he hit a massive 172 against Zimbabwe falling just three runs short of the all-time T20 record which is 175.

After making his debut in 2011, 2013 was the breakout year for Finch. He then continued his success in 2014 and 2015. He scored consistently for the Aussies in the shortest format and also became their premier white-ball opener alongside David Warner.

In 2015, Finch became the No. 1 T20I batsman for the first time in his career. However, Kohli soon took over. But the Victorian regained the No. 1 ranking again in 2017 before eventually dropping down in 2018. Finch is the only player to hit the 900-point rating in the T20I format.

5. Virat Kohli (2014-2017)

Virat Kohli is the only batsman in the history of the game to average in excess of 50 across all formats. He may be a conventional player but he finds a way and knows how to score consistently in the shortest format as well. In fact, he is also the only player to win two Man of the Tournament awards in the World T20.

In those two World T20s (2014 and 2016), Kohli almost single-handedly took India to the final and semi-final respectively. He scored heavily outside the World T20s as well. It was in 2014 Kohli ascended to the top of the ICC T20I rankings. However, he lost out to Finch in 2015 but regained it back in 2016 where he had Bradman-esque numbers.

However, his consistency has dropped in the last couple of years and he hasn’t played as many T20Is as well. Thus, he hasn’t been able to hold onto his pole position. Meanwhile, Kohli is the highest run-getter in the history of T20Is and also has the most fifty-plus scores in the format.