Cricket has been around in various forms since the 16th century, but the game was formalized by English aristocrats in the 18th century and later popularized in England and other parts of the world. The most prominent international competitions today are the Cricket World Cup and World Twenty20 Championship, which are contested between international teams.
Cricket is a beloved sport in the world and has created many stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Vivian Richards, etc. With a bat and a ball, they have performed miracles. Are you looking for the most successful player in the current world? This is a difficult question to answer. It is challenging to pick the top cricketers in 2022, with so many players shining in numerous leagues and tournaments around the world. Nonetheless, we have created a list of top players who are leaving a mark in the field in 2022.
1. Babar Azam
The Pakistani captain was ranked number one in the ICC rankings of ODI batsmen for April 2021 and never looked back (yet). Babar is a Pakistani international cricketer and the captain of Pakistan in all three formats.
His ranking as one of the best cricket players in the world in 2022 kept him atop the ODI batting rankings as the reigning ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year. For Pakistan, he has made and broken multiple records. He is currently the fastest player to hit 2,500 T20I runs and is poised to set more records over the next few years.
He scored 939 runs during the previous year (2021) at an average strike rate of 37.56 and an overall strike rate in the range of 127.58. These are remarkable numbers considering that test cricket tends to have lower strike rates. You can watch all the highlights of his amazing performances on YouTube or any streaming sites. You just need a fast-speed internet connection like CenturyLink Internet for lag-free streaming.
2. Marnus Labuschagne
Marnus Labuschagne was the first player ever to be used in a match as a replacement for a concussion. In that game, Australians accidentally discovered a star cricketer.
Marnus took over from Steve Smith after his injury, and by the end of the year, had also taken over his mentor/teammate as the top run scorer in cricket. Labuschagne continued to score well in the longest format of cricket and will start 2022 as the top-ranked test batter.
Labuschagne scored 2,644 runs across 35 international games, including the fourth Ashes test at Sydney in 2022. He scored 215 and had seven hundred.
3. Dawid Malan
Like other English team players, Dawid Malan has had a difficult time against Australia in the 2021-22 Ashes series. However, he started the new year as the top-ranked T20i batsman, which is enough to get him on this list.
He scored 103 runs against New Zealand in 2019. This made him the second English batsman to score a century in T20i. He has also scored 99 runs for his country since then. Malan was criticized for not scoring as quickly in limited-overs T20i cricket, but he will still be a key player in England's 2022 World Cup.
4. Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma, India's limited-overs Captain is expected to lead India in the coming years. Although he has not played in India's test series against South Africa 2022 match, he still has much to offer in the longer format of cricket. Hopefully, we should see more of him playing in the ODIs as he has broken many records. He has three double hundreds to his name in the fifty-over format, with the highest ever score of 264. These are amazing statistics for batsmen, hence he will be productive for India in 2022.
5. Aaron Finch
Aaron Finch, an Australian international cricketer, is well-known for his big hits and hard-hitting style of batting at the top order. At the start of 2022, Finch was ranked sixth in the T20 rankings and fifth in the ODI rankings by the ICC. The captain started 2022 with the highest score in international T20 cricket.
The current world record of 172 was set against Zimbabwe by Finch in 2018. This right-handed opener can usually be trusted to take on the bowlers during the batting powerplay; scoring runs quickly to get the team started.
6. Virat Kohli
The Indian Batsmen have been ruling the prestigious game for some time now. He is the most loved and successful captain of the Indian Cricket Team. Even though Virat Kohli has not scored an international century in two years, India's former captain is still a threat in all three formats of cricket. That's why he deserves to be on this list.
Kohli has been awarded the ICC ODI Player of the year award in the year 2012, 2017, and 2018 and the ICC Test Player in 2018. He got the Wisden Leading Cricketer award for three straight years in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and in the year 2011 -2014 and 2018-19.
The right-handed, top-order batsmen not only hold cricketing but national awards as well. Kohli has the Padma Shri award, the Arjuna Award he was awarded Padma Shri again in 2017, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award; his fourth highest civilian award.
He is also part of the Indian Premier League and has excellent records in cricket. He is currently associated with the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Conclusion
This concludes the list of top cricket players in the world at the moment. There are so many great cricketers that it seems only right that the article ends with some honorable mentions, including Will Smeed, Rassie van der Dussen, Mohammad Rizwan, Shimron Hetmyer, and Shreyas Iyer.
