The last edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup was in 2016 which saw West Indies winning a thrilling finale against England. Now, another edition of the mega event is knocking on our doors and it is a good time to take a look at some of the top performers from each department since the last World Cup. Here, we will take a look at the openers who have performed to the best of their abilities during this period. Total number of runs scored is definitely a metric that can be used to judge the batsmen but a better option to determine their quality would be to use the BASRA (Aggregate of batting average and strike-rate) system. Rohit Sharma followed by Paul Stirling, Shikhar Dhawan, Colin Munro and KL Rahul are the top run-getters during this period. But in terms of BASRA, here are our best five batsmen during this period (minimum 20 innings):
Colin Munro (BASRA: 196.88)
The Kiwi opener is placed at fourth in the list of most T20I runs during this period but he has a higher BASRA than all batsmen who have played at least 20 innings during this timeframe. Munro has a total of 1123 runs in 33 innings during this period at an average of 36.23 and a sensational strike-rate of 160.66. He has scored two hundreds too which sums up his ability of Playing big knocks.
Aaron Finch (BASRA: 196.26)
With 933 runs to his name during this timeframe, Aaron Finch is seventh in this list for most runs. However, an excellent average and strike-rate of 37.32 and 158.94 respectively sees him beating other batsmen to the second position in terms of best BASRA. The Australian opener has a best score of 172 during this period and that sums up how dangerous a batsman he is.
George Munsey (BASRA: 193.17)
The Scottish international has been in fine form at the top of the order for Ireland of late. Very recently, he scored a century in the format as well and that sums up why he is featuring in this list. Like most other openers from any top cricketing country, Munsey has an outstanding average and strike-rate of 34.61 and 158.57 respectively during this period as well.
KL Rahul (BASRA: 191.42)
The fact that Rahul is appearing in this list ahead of other established Indian openers like Rohit Sharma, and Shikhar Dhawan, says a lot. Rahul has been one of the best openers in T20 cricket during the last couple of years. He has an outstanding strike-rate of 44.45 as an opener during this timeframe and his strike-rate of 144.96 tells that those runs come at a pretty quick rate too. Rahul has 15 scores of 30+ in just 24 innings during this period and that's unreal consistency in this format.
Evin Lewis (BASRA: 190.60)
West Indies are lucky to have found a like-for-like replacement for someone like Chris Gayle so soon. The left-handed opener has been a prolific run-getter during this period as well. Lewis has amassed 934 runs during this period at an excellent strike-rate of 157.24. His average of 33.36 has been pretty good as well and thus West Indies will depend a lot on his exploits during the upcoming T20 World Cup.
