India will enter the T20 World Cup 2022 as one of the favourites despite the absence of two key players, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah.
This is the 8th edition of the tournament and India will be hunting their second T20 world title. They won the inaugural T20 World Cup back in 2007 but suffered some dismal years in the next three editions.
India did make it into the final of 2014 and semi-final of 2016 but failed to close out the knockout matches, and then were eliminated in the group stage in 2021.
In this article, we look at India’s best player from each of the 7 T20 World Cups so far:
2007 – Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh lit up the inaugural T20 World Cup with his six sixes against England’s Stuart Broad, recording the fastest fifty in T20Is, off 12 balls – these remain one of the most memorable moments in Indian cricket history and in T20Is.
The left-hander also smashed 70*(30) against Australia in the semi-finals. Overall, in the tournament, Yuvraj scored 148 runs at a sizzling strike rate of 194!
2009 – Yuvraj Singh
After winning both the first-round matches, India lost all the 3 games in the Super 8 round in the 2009 T20 WC, but Yuvraj Singh was their star man once again, finishing as India’s highest scorer in the tournament with 153 runs, scored at a strike rate of 154 and a best of 67. This was when Yuvraj was struggling with form and fitness and was even dropped from the ODI side, but the southpaw pulled his straps in the mega-event, playing entertaining knocks against West Indies 67 off 43 balls and 41 off 18 vs Bangladesh.
2010 – Suresh Raina
India once again won both their first-round matches, but then once again went on to lose all their 3 Super 8-round matches. They defeated South Africa in the first round courtesy of a blistering century from Suresh Raina – India’s first T20I centurion and still the only Indian men’s batsman to hit a ton in T20 World Cup.
Suresh Raina finished as India’s highest scorer in the tournament with 219 runs at a strike rate of 146 with one century and another fifty; the next highest scorer was Dhoni with 85 runs.
2012 – Lakshmipathy Balaji
It was the same story: two wins in the first round, and then elimination in Super 8. This time, though, India did win 2 out of 3 matches in the second round but fell behind on nrr.This time it was a pacer, Lakshmipathy Balaji, who had made his return to the national side on the back of good IPL performances and who was India’s highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 9 wickets in 4 matches (12 overs) at a stunning bowling average of 9.7 and economy of 7.3 Balaji delivered the topsy-turvy last over against South Africa in the game that India won by just 1 run. That was the last T20I for Balaji.
The 2012 T20 WC also saw the emergence of Virat Kohli, who finished as India’s highest scorer in the tournament with 185 runs at 46 and 2 half-centuries. Bigger tournaments were about to come for India’s golden boy.
2014 – Virat Kohli
On the difficult batting surfaces of Bangladesh, Virat Kohli amassed 319 runs in 6 innings in the 2014 T20 WC and carried India till the final. In the final too, against Sri Lanka, Kohli hit a half-century – 77 runs off 58 balls – but the rest of the batters didn’t step up and India could post only 130 on the board which Sri Lanka chased down. He had also recorded 72*(44) in the semi-final against South Africa.
Kohli hit a total of 4 fifties in 6 knocks and maintained a scarcely believable average of 106 in the tournament.
2016 – Virat Kohli
Once again, Kohli was India’s main man, and this time it was almost a single-handed effort dragging the hosts to the semi-finals. In the 2016 T20 WC, Kohli scored 273 runs at an incredible average of 136 and strike rate of 146, notching up 3 half-centuries in 5 innings. The next-highest total by an Indian batsman was 89, by Dhoni. The difference between the highest and second-highest reflected the carry job Kohli did.
He played one of the greatest T20 World Cup knocks against Australia, 82* (51) in what was a virtual quarter-final, before hammering 89* (47) vs West Indies in the semi-final, which India lost in the last over.
2021 – Jasprit Bumrah
Still fresh in the memory, India suffered defeats to Pakistan and New Zealand, which paved the way for their group-stage exit despite them winning the next three matches.
Jasprit Bumrah’s brilliance with the ball in the matches bar the Pakistan game goes underrated because India failed to reach the semis.
But Bumrah had a good tournament with the ball – picking up 7 wickets in 5 matches and keeping a tight economy of 5.08, which is commendable given how the batting-friendly conditions were in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where India played their matches. Even in the loss to New Zealand, Bumrah registered figures of 2/19 but didn’t get support from the other end.
