The year 2022 has officially came to its end and it will be remembered many reasons. There were some really good matches, especially the T20I cricket due to the T20 World Cup 2022. Also Virat Kohli returned to form as he scored his first International century in 3 years in the Asia Cup 2022. Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has picked the top 5 T20I batters from 2022, but excluded Pakistan captain Babar Azam who had a good year and included Virat Kohli, but not at the top.
The year 2022 was all about the T20 cricket. The IPL 2022 was special as debutant Gujarat Titans won the IPL 2022 while England displayed its true power in the shortest format of the game to win the coveted Trophy.
Other than some brilliant T20 matches, the year 2022 saw some really great moments. Ireland shown in the T20 World Cup 2022 and their pacer Josh Little made a name for himself. Virat Kohli returned to form as he scored his first international century in 3 years and many more moments. The associate nations also stepped up their performance.
India’s Suryakumar Yadav had an extraordinary year as he scored the most T20I runs in 2022, 1164 runs in 31 innings. Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam also had a good year. As such, picking the 5 players in T20I in 2022 was always set to be a difficult task. Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra picked his top 5 T20I batters in 2022.
Chopra picked New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza in 5 and 4th place respectively. Raza was the best player for Zimbabwe throughout the year in all formats. Conway also came in clutch for New Zealand, though not a destroyer kind of player in T20Is.
At number 3 he picked former India captain Virat Kohli. Kohli, after suffering a huge period of not being able to score a century, for which is popularly known for, scored his first international century in 3 years. He finished the year scoring 781 runs in 20 innings.
At number 2 he picked Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan. Rizwan is the 2nd highest run scorer in T20I in 2022. However, he is also not the kind of player who likes to struck the ball hard, but actually plays an anchoring role, just like Devon Conway.
And at number 1 is certainly the deserved candidate Suryakumar Yadav. Yadav scored 1164 T20I runs in 2022. He just made his debut in 2021 and has now established himself as the best T20 player, currently ranked number 1 in T20I batsmen ranking.
Meanwhile, despite scoring 735 runs in 26 inning, Chopra decided against picking Pakistan captain Babar Azam. Aakash Chopra said, “Going by the stats, Babar Azam should be the No.5 but I am not including him in my list. He has scored 735 runs in 26 matches and his average is only 32 and strike rate merely 123. Sorry! but I can’t take him in my team.”