India will kick off their T20 World Cup 2022 against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23 at the MCG. India also have stiff opposition such as South Africa and Bangladesh in their group.
The main reason for India’s losses to Pakistan and New Zealand at the ICC T20 World Cup last year in the UAE and the Asia Cup earlier this year was the failure of their batters to put up above-par scores.
In Australia, India will not want to repeat their mistakes. The form of their batters has become even more critical after the bowling woes of the past few weeks.
Here are three batsmen who could emerge as India’s top three run-scorers in ICC T20 World Cup 2022:
KL Rahul
KL Rahul returned from injury during the Asia Cup, where he remained subdued for the most part of his time in the middle. However, he did get a fifty to complete the tournament against Afghanistan. After that, he’d gradually gotten into good nick and also embraced the attacking approach right from the outset of the innings that India have built their batting on this year.
Rahul scored 55 off 35 against Australia, and then produced two more fifties against South Africa, the second of which was at a strike rate of 203.
KL Rahul was India’s highest scorer in last year’s ICC T20 World Cup with 194 runs in 5 knocks and three fifties. India would want him to better that this year.
Suryakumar Yadav
Arguably the most in-form T20 batsman currently in the world, Suryakumar Yadav has hit T20I cricket like perhaps no other Indian has. He is the leading T20I scorer in 2022 with 801 runs, and his strike rate of 184 is simply astonishing.
Nobody has scored more runs this year in T20Is at a better strike rate than Suryakumar Yadav, who is currently ranked second in ICC T20I men’s batsman ranking. Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan is the number 1 ranked T20I batsman, but his strike rate of 128 this year is much lower than Yadav’s 184.
Even though Suryakumar Yadav comes in at number 4, the speed at which he scores his runs makes him a serious contender to be India’s highest run-scorer in the tournament.
Virat Kohli
Arguably the greatest T20I batsman, Virat Kohli has already bagged Player of the Tournament awards twice in ICC T20 World Cups – in 2014 and 2016. Kohli scored 68 runs in 3 knocks at the tournament last year in the UAE, but he was amidst his lean patch then.
Now, he’s turned his form around with a century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. Following which, Kohli has produced two match-winning knocks, against Australia and South Africa each.
Kohli has an incredible record in ICC T20 World Cups: 19 innings, 845 runs at an average of 76! He’s notched up 10 fifties in those 19 innings and has remained not out 8 times. Kohli remains a top contender to finish not only India’s tally, but even as the tournament’s top-scorer.
