Most Runs in a Calendar Year in T20 Internationals

Every year, a freakish number of runs are scored by batters in T20 internationals. Players across the world have made unimaginable record breaking runs in T20. Especially in 2022, all nations played a record number of T20 games to prepare well for the World Cup, and 6 international players featured in the top 10 list of players to have scored the most runs in the calendar year in T20s.

Most runs scored in a calendar year in T20 internationals

Players	Year	Matches	Runs	SR	100s	50s
Mohammad Rizwan	2021	29	1326	134.89	1	12
Suryakumar Yadav	2022	29	1040	185.71	1	9
Mohammad Rizwan	2022	25	996	122.96	0	10
Babar Azam	2021	29	939	127.58	1	9
Virat Kohli	2022	20	781	138.23	1	8
Paul Stirling	2019	20	748	140.60	0	8
Sikandar Raza	2022	24	735	150.92	0	5
Babar Azam	2022	26	735	123.32	1	5
Kevin O’Brien	2019	23	729	155.43	1	3
Pathum Nissanka	2022	24	713	112.99	0	6

Who has scored Most T20I runs in a calendar year?

Presently, Pakistani opener, Mohammad Rizwan holds the record of scoring the highest number of runs in a single calendar year in T20 internationals. Rizwan scored 1326 runs in the year 2021. It took him 29 matches to achieve that feat. Rizwan seems to be enjoying his purple patch. His dream runs continued in 2022 as well, as he registered 996 runs and nearly missed out on consecutive 1000 runs. However, a few rare failures cost him his top spot in the World T20 rankings.

Apart from him, Suryakumar Yadav is the one who has shown crazy hitting abilities in the shortest format. He dethroned Mohammad Rizwan to become World No.1 in the T20 international. Surya breached the 100-run mark in 2022. With that, he became the only Indian player to have scored 1000 T20 runs in a single calendar year.

Pakistani skipper, Babar Azam was featured twice in the top 10 list. Babar reached close to the 1000-run mark but missed it by a whisker. Babar Azam has enjoyed sublime form over the past couple of years. The 28-year-old has broken many batting records in international cricket across all formats and not just the T20s. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks the 1000-run barrier.

A few underdogs have been featured on the list as well. Zimbabwe cricketer Sikandar Raza and Ireland opener Paul Stirling impressed fans with their record-breaking hitting for their respective home nations.