Best batting average in T20Is - India’s Virat Kohli leads the pack

Twenty20 is one such format in cricket where a player’s calibre, especially a batter, is judged by their ability to score big runs consistently, which results in a high average. 

For starters, a player's batting average is calculated by dividing the total number of runs scored by the number of times they have been dismissed.

Indian cricket team veteran Virat Kohli boasts the highest average in T20Is, with 52.73 in 115 matches.

The former India captain made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in the first T20I of the India tour of Zimbabwe 2010. He scored 26 runs in 21 balls to guide his team to a six-wicket win.  

Since then, he has gone on to score 4,008 runs - the most runs in T20 Internationals, striking 37 fifties, which is the most half-centuries in T20Is.

Virat Kohli has remained not-out on 31 occasions and 18 times when chasing. Interestingly, India have never lost a match when Kohli has remained unbeaten in a chase.

New Zealand’s Devon Conway is second on the list of cricketers with the highest batting average in T20I.

The wicket-keeper batter boasts an average of 49.36. Conway made his T20 debut in 2020 and has established himself as a power-hitter. Interestingly, he has never been dismissed for a duck in his international career and is also the third-fastest batter to reach 1000 T20I runs. Overall, he has scored 1086 runs in 33 matches. 

Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan also features on the list of batters with the highest batting average in T20I.

Rizwan has recorded an average of 48.79 in T20Is since making his debut in 2015, scoring 2635 runs in 80 matches. He also shares the record of fastest to 2000 runs in T20 internationals with fellow countryman Babar Azam. 

Moreover, Rizwan has scored the most runs in a calendar year in T20Is. In 2021, he scored a staggering 1326 runs in 29 matches at a brilliant average of 73.66.

Indian batter Manish Pandey is fourth on the list of batsmen with the highest batting average in T20Is. 

The middle-order batter has amassed 709 runs in 39 matches at an average of 44.31. He has recorded three fifties in the T20I format. However, he hasn’t featured for the Indian team in T20Is since 2020.

Canadian batter Navneet Dhaliwal completes our top-five list, having scored 748 runs in 23 matches at an average of 44.00. 

Current Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, Suryakumar Yadav of India and former Netherlands batter Ryan ten Doeschate are among the others with impressive batting averages in the shortest format of the game.

Highest averages in T20 internationals

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Featured photo: AFP