In the early 2010s, T20 cricket wasn’t very popular in the cricket world. The Indian Premier League was new, and people thought it favored batsmen more than bowlers. But things changed in the last ten years.
Many players became famous by playing in T20 leagues worldwide. Events like the Champions League T20 and having T20 World Cups every two years helped a lot.
Even though batsmen are still the stars, bowlers have also had great moments, including some Indian bowlers.
Let’s have a look at the top five indian t20I bowlers of this decade:
5. Ashish Nehra
Ashish Nehra, a left-handed fast bowler, first played for India in only two T20I matches before he joined the T20 World Cup in 2010. He did really well in the match against Afghanistan, getting his best bowling figures in that format. After that, he had a great tournament. But in 2011, he only played one match against South Africa, where he took two wickets for 22 runs in four overs. After that, he was taken out of the team.
After five years, Nehra came back to India’s T20 team because of his amazing performance in IPL 2015. He played a big role in winning a match in the 2016 Asia Cup and also did well in the 2016 T20 World Cup. He was an important part of the team until he retired in 2017.
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4. Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal made his T20I debut for India after IPL 2016. He was a part of the series against Zimbabwe and bowled a magnificent spell in the 2nd T20I where he returned figures of 1/19. Based on his performance in the series, he earned a place in the Indian T20I squad for the series against England.
Chahal picked up two wickets in the first T20I of the series but went wicket-less in the second match. The team management backed him to play well at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and the skinny lad from Haryana did not disappoint as he scalped six wickets in his four overs to tilt the game in India’s favor.
He has now established himself as a prime wicket-taker in the Indian team. The 29-year-old has taken 50 wickets in the 34 matches he has played for the country. Currently, he stands third in the list of the highest Indian T20I wicket-takers of this decade.
3. Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah is the best bowler on the planet right now but the only reason he is at the number three position in this list is his career span. Bumrah made his debut in 2016 while this list considers the performances of players from 2010 to 2019. Thus, the Ahmedabad-born pacer holds the third rank here.
He has played 42 T20I matches for India so far and has represented the country in the 2016 T20 World Cup. The right-arm fast bowler played his first T20I against Australia at Adelaide. He picked up 6 wickets in his debut series and later followed it up with some fine spells against Sri Lanka.
Bumrah has been a fantastic performer for team India in T20Is and will be the team’s most important bowler in the upcoming World Cup.
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2. Ravichandran Ashwin
The most successful Indian T20I bowler of this decade missed out on the top spot just because of his exclusion from the T20I team. Although he has achieved enormous success in T20I cricket, Ashwin now seems to have fallen off the selectors’ radar.
He has donned the Indian jersey in multiple T20 World Cups. He made his T20I debut against Sri Lanka in 2010 and his consistent performances thereon cemented his spot in the team. His ability to avoid provide breakthroughs at crucial junctions of the match often made him Dhoni’s (and later Kohli’s) go-to bowler.
The Chennai-born Ashwin led the Indian spin bowling attack in the 2014 T20 World Cup. He took 11 wickets in the tournament, all the while keeping his economy rate below six in every single group match.
1. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
When Bhuvneshwar Kumar made his international debut for India, the fans billed him as Praveen Kumar 2.0. He had an excellent command over the swing and seam of the ball. In his debut match against Pakistan, Bhuvneshwar returned figures of 3/9 in his four overs.
His performance in the subsequent matches wasn’t up to the mark and the pacer was then dropped from the team. He later bounced back, putting his newfound ability to bowl quick yorkers in the death overs to good use, and was India’s premier pacer once again.
One of the most economical bowlers around, there are just five T20Is out of the 40 he’s played in where he has conceded more than 40 runs.
The Uttar Pradesh-born bowler also has a five-wicket haul to his name (against South Africa in Johannesburg) besides being the team’s vital cog in the 2014 and 2016 T20 World Cups.
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