T20 World Cup 2022 is slated to be played in Australia from October 16 to November 13. The tournament will begin with the preliminary qualifying round, after which the Super 12s will kick off on October 22, the marquee India-Pakistan clash slated for October 23.
In the qualifying round, 8 teams will compete in two groups of four for four spaces in Super 12. There, the teams are divided into two groups of 6 each, with the top two from each group proceeding to the semi-final.
Group 1: Australia, New Zealand, England, Afghanistan, A1, B2
Group 2: India, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, B1, A2
The final will be played at the iconic MCG after the two semi-finals in Sydney and Adelaide.
Who will finish as the top scorer in T20 World Cup 2022?
In this article, we look at the top 5 contenders to finish as the leading run-scorer of the T20 World Cup 2022:
Jos Buttler
Jos Buttler has been in supreme form in the shortest format ever since he was promoted to open the innings. As an opener, in 34 T20I knocks, Buttler averages 47 and has a strike rate of 151 with 11 fifties and a century.
At the T20 World Cup last year in the UAE, Buttler scored 269 runs at a strike rate of 151 with a century and a fifty in 5 innings. In the IPL 2022, the RR opener finished as the Orange Cap holder, smashing 863 runs in 17 innings at a strike rate of 149, notching up 4 centuries and 4 half-centuries.
In Australia, where the ball comes on nicely to the bat, and the fact that Buttler will get to face more from pacers than spinners, he’s perhaps the safest bet to finish as the tournament’s lead scorer.
Virat Kohli
Is the King back? Seems so. Virat Kohli stormed back to form in the recently-concluded Asia Cup 2022: Kohli finished the tournament with 276 runs in 5 innings – just 5 runs behind Rizwan who played one innings more – with the help of 2 fifties and his maiden T20I century – the century that broke the 1020 days wait of his 71st international ton.
This century came for Kohli while he was promoted to open; also, not to forget: all his 5 IPL tons have come while opening. And even though India are likely to stick with the Rohit-Rahul combo at the top, they might ponder upon opening with Kohli in Australia where he has a superb T20I record: average of 64 and strike rate of 144, 5 fifties in 10 innings.
Kohli finished as the top-scorer in the 2014 WC and second-highest in 2016, bagging the Player of the Tournament award both times. Can he do it again, and also help India lift the trophy?
David Warner
David Warner was the Man of the Tournament in last year’s T20 World Cup in the UAE, after amassing 289 runs (second-highest) at an average of 48 and strike rate of 146, helping Australia lift their maiden T20 World Cup trophy.
Warner is expected to be amongst the top of the run charts this time as well: he’s a beast when it comes to playing in home conditions: in 23 T20I innings in Australia, Warner has walloped 5 fifties and a century, averages 45 at a strike rate of 148. With Aaron Finch out of form, Warner will have some more responsibility to bear.
Babar Azam
The shortest format demands the batsmen to not only stick around and score, but also score at a rate that benefits the team, otherwise what’s the point? However, Babar Azam seems to have not got this memo.
Babar is amongst the most talented batsmen in the world, and even ruled the top of the ICC T20I rankings for a long time. However, his strike rate has been below what you’d expect from a modern T20 opener.
Since the start of 2021, Babar has scored 1073 T20I runs (the second-highest) at an average of 33, but his strike rate of 126 has hurt his side only – encapsulated by Pakistan’s loss to Australia in the T20 WC semi-final last year when he scored 39 off 34 balls and Pakistan finished with a par total.
He was the tournament’s top-scorer – with 303 runs at an average of 60, but his strike rate was only 126!
Mohammad Rizwan
Mohammad Rizwan’s batting modus operandi isn’t too different than Babar’s either; he’s just a little more aggressive than his skipper. Now the number 1 T20I batter, Rizwan has scored a whopping 1630 runs since 2021, the most in the world, at an average of 67 and his strike is 131 in this period, which also needs to get better if Pakistan are to win the T20 WC.
Rizwan recently was heavily criticised for his slow start in the Asia Cup final vs Sri Lanka: he scored 55 runs off 49 balls in chase of 171, which Pakistan fell 23 runs short of.
Rizwan was the third-highest scorer at the T20 WC last year – 281 runs at a strike rate of 127.
