Cricket is the world’s second most popular sport, and it has been that way since the 18th century. Since its inception, cricket has spread from its birthplace in the United Kingdom to Asia, Australia, South Africa, and parts of the Caribbean and Europe. With popularity comes interest from fans and businesses alike, which creates opportunities for new players to join the league every year. Here are 10 players on their way to international stardom based on what they have accomplished so far and what they look like when they take their positions on the pitch.
10. Steve Smith
Despite averaging over 100 in the Ashes series of 2019, Steve Smith didn’t have the best year of his life in 2021, even by his lofty standards. He failed to score a century in each of the first four tests against England in 2021/22.
It would be wrong to dismiss Smith. In this game, form is ephemeral, but class is permanent, and he has more than enough. While Smith isn’t the most graceful player for watching, he is extremely effective. From now on, Smith will concentrate on test cricket, and in that format, he has 7757 runs at an average of 60.60, as well as 27 hundreds and a best score of 239 runs.
9. Aaron Finch
Aaron Finch has played test cricket but is mostly regarded as a white-ball specialist. According to the ICC, he was ranked fifth in ODIs and sixth in T20Is at the start of 2022. The current world record of 172, set against Zimbabwe in 2018, is included in Finch’s list of notable accomplishments as of the start of 2022.
Aaron Finch is ranked 5th in the ICC ODI Rankings for batsmen in 2022, and 6th in the T20I Rankings. Former ICC T20I player who scored 172 runs in one T20I against Zimbabwe in 2018, surpassing his previous record of 156 runs in just 63 deliveries against England in 2013. A veteran of seven IPL franchises, this aggressive opener will play for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2022 season.
8. David Warner
David Warner was the third-highest run scorer in the first four matches of the 2012/21 Ashes series, with 273 runs at an average of 45.5. He struggled in England in 2019, but not in the most recent series. It is my expectation that Warner will have another successful year, as he was ranked sixth in test cricket and seventh in ODIs at the start of 2022. Despite the loss of the Sunrisers Hyderabad from the IPL in 2021, he is expected to bounce back with a new team.
7. Joe Root
6. Kane Williamson
It is predicted that Kane Williamson, the New Zealand captain, will do big things in 2022, and he still holds several high positions across all formats of the game.
Williamson is ranked third in the ICC test ratings ahead of Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Root at the start of 2022. He’s also ranked seventh in the ODI rankings. Currently, New Zealand’s skipper has almost 15,000 international runs to his credit, including 37 centuries and a best score of 251.
5. Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma has shown that he is eager to captain India in limited-overs cricket, and I am confident that we will see a lot more of him in white-ball cricket. Though he hasn’t played in India’s test series against South Africa in 2022, he still has a lot to contribute in the lengthier format of the game. He is a one-day international cricket record holder, scoring triple centuries and notching up a world-record score of 264. I anticipate great numbers from him in 2022.
When he is batting in an ODI, Rohit Sharma has the tendency to stay on the 22-yard wicket for the entire 50 overs, and is the first and only player in 50-over cricket history to score three double-hundreds, two of which were against Sri Lanka, one against Australia. Five hundred runs in the 2019 ODI World Cup means he holds the world record for most centuries in one ODI World Cup. In the ODI ICC Rankings, this mighty hitter is now ranked third as a batsman.
4. Dawid Malan
It has been challenging for all of England’s test batsmen to face Australia in The Ashes series in 2021/22, but Dawid Malan begins the New Year as the top-ranked T20i batter, which is enough to warrant his inclusion on this list.
He became only the second Englishman to score a T20i century with 103 against New Zealand in 2019. Since then, he’s also made 99 in this format for England. In limited-overs cricket, Malan has been criticized for not scoring quickly enough, but he should still be an important player for England in 2022.
3. Babar Azam
The Pakistani batsman Babar Azam had an outstanding year in 2021, making him the top ODI batsman in the world. Babar is also a top 10 performer in T20 and Test cricket. The previous year, he was outstanding in all three formats, scoring 939 runs with a strike rate of 127.58 percent and an average of 37.56 percent.
Test cricket is notorious for having a lower strike rate, so these are excellent numbers. Babar Azam had played 203 matches across all three formats as of the start of 2022. He has almost 9,000 runs to his name, including 20 international centuries.
2. Marnus Labuschagne
Australian player Marnus Labuschagne just made cricket history as the first player to be used as a concussion substitution in a test match in 2019. Not only is it lucky for Labuschagne, but it also appears lucky for the Australians, who found a potential star batsman by chance.
In this game, Labuschagne substituted for Steve Smith and before the year was out he had beaten his partner to become the highest run-scorer in test cricket. In the longer version of the game, he scored heavily and at the beginning of 2022, at 27 years old, he is ranked as the number one test batter.
Labuschagne’s statistics include 2644 runs, with seven centuries and a highest score of 215 in 35 international matches, up to and including the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney in 2022.
1. Virat Kohli
The critics may point out that Virat Kohli has not scored an international century in over two years. Nonetheless, India’s test match skipper continues to be a threat in all three forms of cricket, earning him a spot on our list. In 2022, Kohli will be eager to disprove his doubters, and I anticipate a positive reaction from him. He is second in One Day Internationals and tenth in Test cricket, according to official ICC rankings.
A right-handed ace hitter, he has made 43 ODI hundreds in 260 games, which puts him on track to surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s world record of 49 ODI hundreds. He has also scored 27 test hundreds.
Among the fastest ODI totals in history, Kohli has racked up 7000, 8000, 9000, 10000, 11000, and 12000 runs. It took him just 242 innings to score 12000 ODI runs, which is the fastest in history. In T20I games, he has the world record batting average of 51.50, making him the most difficult batsman to dismiss.
