Stats: Players with most centuries in a calendar year in Twenty20 cricket

Dawid Malan has been at his batting best in the T20 format this year as he’s been scoring runs in whichever T20 tournament he has played in 2019. He aggregated 490 runs during the T20 Blast including a century. Malan finished as the 3rd highest run-getter in the tournament behind only the Somerset boys Babar Azam (578) and Tom Banton (549). He amassed 208 runs in the four games he played during the 5-match T20I series on New Zealand tour which includes his maiden T20I hundred.

On the eve of Christmas, the left-hander touched 300-run mark in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League to become the leading run-getter. He scored an unbeaten 100 on Tuesday for the Cumilla Victorians against the Rajshahi Royals. Malan scored 100 from 54 balls with nine fours and five sixes. Despite his efforts, the Victorians finished on 170/8 as Soumya Sarkar’s 20 was the 2nd best score during the innings. Extra runs were the 3rd major contributor as 13 runs came via extras.

The Royals chased down the target in 17.5 overs for the loss of seven wickets. The century by Dawid Malan in this game was his 5th in the Twenty20 format and the 3rd T20 tons this year. Malan thus became the first England player to score three T20 tons in a calendar year. Babar Azam also scored three hundreds this year but has played 39 innings; the most among the players in this list. Overall, seven players achieved this feat with Chris Gayle doing so in four different calendar years – 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

In fact, only two players have more than three T20 centuries in a calendar year. Virat Kohli in 2016 across 29 innings and Chris Gayle in 2011 across 31 innings recorded four centuries apiece in the Twenty20 format in respective years. In current form, Malan has a good chance of joining the list as he is left to feature in two more matches before the end of this year. Michael Klinger was brilliant in 2015 where he scored three centuries but batted in only 22 innings.

Most centuries in T20 cricket by a player in a calendar year:

(Stats as on December 25, 2019)