With the T20 World cup on the way, it just isn’t a world stage, but also a debut stage for many world-class batsmen including KL Rahul and Babar Azam. Both of them are featuring in their first T20 World cup.
Babar who debuted in 2016 has shown extraordinary form since his international career has begun. Let’s see in what fashion does KL, Babar and Conway go about their innings in the upcoming matches of the ICC T20 World cup 2021.
On that note, let’s take a look at 3 prominent batters who are playing their first T20 World Cup:
#1. KL Rahul (India)
One of the Indian batsmen in the top for India in the T20 World Cup has been KL Rahul, who registered his fourth consecutive 500-plus run-tally in an Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Rahul’s runs tally of 659, 593, 670 and 626 in the last four editions of the IPL shows why he is still a force to reckon with in the biggest stage.
For a large part of the IPL season that concluded recently, Rahul seemed to be in the reckoning for the Orange Cap, only for CSK’s Ruturaj Gaikwad to seize the honours with 635 runs, which turned out to be his breakthrough season with the addition of Chennai Super Kings winning their fourth IPL crown.
Building up to the tournament, Rahul scored 51 against England in the first warm-up match, while forging an 82-run stand with Ishan Kishan. Although he got dismissed for 2 runs in 8 balls against Pakistan, the Karnataka batter still has huge confidence in his batting and we will surely see that in the next encounter against the black caps.
#2. Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is rated as one of the top batsmen in the shortest format of the game. He has made a huge impact on Pakistan Cricket since his arrival in 2016. He’s not only gone on to become one of the most prolific batsmen but also has grown on to become a valiant captain across formats.
And come to the T20 World Cup, Babar will be leading the Pakistan side for the first time in an ICC tournament and has announced his arrival in form by defeating arch-rivals India by 10 wickets at the Dubai International Stadium and becoming the only Pakistani captain to defeat India in a world cup game.
Babar has scored 2,204 runs in T20Is at a strike rate of 130.64, and his consistency is hardly ever in question, having averaged 37 or above in a calendar year.
In 2021 alone, Babar Azam has aggregated 523 runs in T20Is from just 14 innings with a strike rate of 132.74 (one century and four fifties), so he is sure to add stability to Pakistan’s batting order and help his team in posting some big totals.
#3. Devon Conway (New Zealand)
A potential key figure should New Zealand go on to win the T20 World Cup, 30-year-old Devon Conway has had a significant rise in international cricket, scoring a double century against England in his Test debut at Lord’s earlier this summer.
But Conway had made his mark in T20I cricket well before that. In November 2020 during a home series, he slammed a 29-ball 41 against West Indies in is T20I debut, and followed it up with an unbeaten 61 against the same opponents two days later.
But then, in February this year, came his most memorable T20I knock yet: A 59-ball unbeaten 99 against Australia at Christchurch that had a major impact on the outcome of the game.
What makes Conway even more dangerous is the strike rate that he possesses in the death overs (17-20) in T20Is: 241, and this seems to show that his role, batting in the last few overs will be of prominence for the Kiwis throughout the tournament.
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