There is no debate that Suryakumar Yadav was the best choice to win the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year for 2022. Given the kind of once-in-a-lifetime year Suryakumar Yadav had, it, at times, felt like a dream.
He was hitting shots most batters could only wish they attempted. His surreal combination of average and strike rate – 46.56 and 187.43 – makes it up for perhaps the greatest year a batsman has had in T20Is.
Though India failed to reach the final of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, Suryakumar Yadav was at his best, even outshining in a couple of games the highest-scorer of the tournament, Virat Kohli.
His aggressive mantra of taking the attack to the bowlers from the onset of his innings has earned his huge praises from some of the greatest in the game, including Kohli who said SKY bats like a video game player.
Suryakumar Yadav batted and smashed like a dream in 2022
In 31 T20Is last year, Suryakumar Yadav ransacked 1164 runs – the most for any Indian batsman in a calendar year in T20Is – at a belligerent strike rate of 187. Apart from a couple of thunderous fifties in Australia – including one of the best T20I knocks vs the South African pace attack in Perth – Suryakumar Yadav smashed hundreds in England and New Zealand. He also clattered 9 fifties.
Suryakumar Yadav walloped a stunning 68 sixes during the year, comfortably the most recorded by anyone in a year in the format’s history.
With no surprises, and with great authority – Suryakumar Yadav is the most deserving batsman to sit at the top of the ICC Men’s T20I batting ranking.
For the unverse, the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year was started only in 2021.
Here is the list of the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year:
There are only two winners of the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year: Mohammad Rizwan in 2021 and Suryakumar Yadav in 2022.
