The ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2025 the competition is shaping up to be a blockbuster battle between explosive batsmen and high-impact spinners who dominate the shortest format in a calendar year. With huge bilateral series and a packed T20I schedule, performances India, England, Pakistan and New Zealand they produced clear top-tier candidates built on consistency, impact in big moments and elite numbers.
Top 5 Candidates for ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2025
- Abhishek Sharma
- Running: 859
- Average / Strike Rate: 95 / 193.46
- Stages: He scored 1 century and 5 half-centuries in 21 innings.
- Signature Performance: A match-winning 135 against the top side anchored India’s chase in the high-stakes bilateral series and marked its emergence as a T20I powerhouse.
Abhishek Sharma Redefining what a T20I opener can do in a full calendar year, he built the strongest overall corps for the 2025 honours. The left-hander scored 859 T20I runs from 21 matches in 2025 at an average of 42.95 and a stunning strike rate of 193.46, including a century, five fifties and a top score of 135. No other Indian batter has matched his combination of volume and strike rate. T20s in a year.
His powerplay aggressiveness has consistently taken India ahead in the game, with social and analytics scoring 85 fours and 54 sixes in these 21 T20Is – borderline figures that are extraordinary at the international level. Abhishek also scored 1,602 runs in all T20s (India, IPL and domestic) in 2025, the second-best annual tally by an Indian in the format after Virat Kohli’s 2016 run, underscoring his dominance outside the international arena.
- Phil Salt
- Running: 434
- Average / Strike Rate: 40 / 175.70
- Stages: He smashed 1 century and 3 half-centuries in 11 innings.
- Signature Performance: An unbeaten 60-ball 141* at the record venue took England to their highest ever T20I and cemented their status as global T20 enforcers.
England all-rounder Phil Salt has produced a superb T20I year that has kept him firmly in the awards conversation despite playing fewer games than some of his rivals. In 2025, Salt has scored 434 T20I runs at an average of 43.40 and a strike rate of 175.70, with one century and three fifties and a career best of 141*, figures that place him among the format’s most devastating top-order batsmen. His ability to turn games in the powerplay has been central to England’s ultra-aggressive white-ball template and helped push him into the top bracket of the T20I batting rankings.
Salt’s success has also been reflected in the global T20 leagues, where he remains among the top ten run-getters in all of T20 cricket in 2025 with over 1,400 runs from an innings of 156, further strengthening his credentials as a one-year winner. The franchise demand, including a high-profile IPL deal, reflects the premium placed on his fearless batting ability and consistency.
- Varun Chakraborty
- Doors: 36
- Average / Economy / Holiday Rate: 19 / 7.08 / 11.16
- Stages: He claimed 1 four wickets and 1 five in 18 overs.
- Signature Performance: A dazzling 5/24 in the deciding match, demolishing the opposition’s middle order and winning the Player of the Series in a home win over South Africa.
Varun Chakravarthy was the outstanding T20I spinner of 2025, delivering a golden year that rewrote several Indian and global benchmarks. The enigmatic spinner finished the calendar year with 36 wickets at an average of 13.19 and an economy rate of 7.08 from 20 matches (18 overs), including both a four-wicket haul and a five-for with best figures of 5/24. This made him India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is in 2025, alongside Pakistan’s Mohammad Nawaz as the overall leader among full member nations.
Varu’s impact was especially evident against the home series South Africawhere he took 10 wickets in four matches at 11.20 to secure Player of the Series and lead India to a 3–1 victory. Statistically, his haul of 36 took him one behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s Indian record of 37 T20I wickets in a calendar year, further underscoring the historic nature of his 2025 campaign.
- Muhammad Nawaz
- Doors: 36
- Average / Economy / Holiday Rate: 61 / 6.56 / 12.44
- Stages: 1 five-rib strike was recorded in 24 shots.
- Signature Performance: A career-best 5/19 in the pressure cooker will be a must-win game for Pakistan with a series-sealing middle-order breakthrough.
Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz has quietly put together one of the most impressive T20I bowling years ever by a spinner from full member. In 2025, Nawaz took 36 wickets from 26 T20Is, an exceptional average of 13.61 and an economy rate of 6.56, with a five-wicket haul and best figures of 5/19, putting him level with Chakravarthy at the top of the calendar year table. Several record lists now show Nawaz as having or sharing the most T20I wickets in a single year among Pakistani bowlers.
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Apart from the ball, social reviews of Pakistan’s season highlight Nawaz’s contribution of over 350 T20I runs and many match-turning cameos, which made his all-round value a major factor in the awarding case. His ability to power, hit through the middle and bowl at the death while maintaining control has made him Pakistan’s most reliable T20 performer in 2025.
- Jacob Duffy
- Doors: 35
- Average / Economy / Holiday Rate: 08 / 7.47 / 12.11
- Stages: He secured 3 four-wicket hauls in 20 overs.
- Signature Performance: A deadly 4/14 in a high-tension clash tore through the batting line-up to defend a modest total and spark New Zealand’s series surge.
New Zealand sailor Jacob Duffy rounding out the top five after a year that made him one of the world’s most prolific T20I quicks. The right-hander picked up 35 wickets from 21 T20Is in 2025 at an average of 15.08, a save rate of 7.47 and a strike rate of 12.11, including three four-wicket hauls and a best of 4/14. This performance made him the first Kiwi player to take more than 30 T20I wickets in a calendar year, a milestone widely celebrated in New Zealand media and fan circles.
Duffy’s success has come in a variety of circumstances, including a highly effective series against Pakistan where he took 13 wickets in five matches to climb the ICC T20I bowling rankings. His consistent wicket-taking in the top-order and middle-order has made him New Zealand’s new T20I spearhead and an outsider but genuine contender for the global award.
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