T20 cricket is a format that has its own game of hide-and-seek to play. Either you have too much of it and is readily visible everywhere, or it just slithers into its comfort zone and lets itself get overshadowed by the bigger bullies of the game. What the bullies do not know is the fact that the best of assassins are always silent. This silence of the men who should speak up (unlike how CSA, PCB, and NZC didn't in 2014, as Dave Richardson has alleged), and the omnipresence of the shortest format of the game is giving a new lease of life to the game. Whether that lease is harmonising or patronising, is subjective to interpretations.
What the format undoubtedly does, though, is bring a new colour to the game. The innocuous 400s being churned out in ODI cricket have a lot to do with the razzmatazz of orgasmic cricket. Six-hitting is no more an art but a necessity, and specialist finishers are the kings in the legions of kings, knights, artisans and peasants (read bowlers).
While it definitely lowers the standards and the yardsticks by which we evaluate the performances of the ones less fortunate, but at the same time, even the smallest of achievements and the smallest of moments can make you a match-winner.
With only 120 balls at your disposal, it is often all or nothing for the players, and unlike life, they don't have the time to think about the meaning of it. Hence, the outstanding achievers of this particular format create their own niche.
Starting this year, we, at Sportskeeda, have decided to ask the fans of the game about individual and team performances and award the best players and teams through the Sportskeeda Cricket Awards.
The five nominees for the T20I All-rounder of the Year award were: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Hardik Pandya (India), Dwayne Bravo (West Indies), Shakib-Al-Hasan (Bangladesh), and Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan). Here are the poll results:
| Player (team) | Position | Percentage of votes |
| Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) | 5 | 5% |
| Hardik Pandya (India) | 3 | 35% |
| Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan) | 4 | 9% |
| Dwayne Bravo (West Indies) | 2 | 36% |
| Shakib-Al-Hasan (Bangladesh) | 1 | 15% |
#5 Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
130 runs and 9 wickets from 12 matches do not make up for the best of numbers for the veteran all-rounder, Shahid Afridi, but much like his timeless ageing, there were crucial knocks from the former Pakistan T20I captain that helped him make the list of the best T20I all-rounders for the year.
Afridi started his year with an 8-ball 23 against New Zealand in Auckland, a knock that contained two fours and as many sixes and helped his side reach a total of 171 in the 1st T20I of the two-match series. The wickets of Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliot with the ball further tightened the screws and helped his side edge out the hosts by 16 runs.
Although he got out for a first-ball duck in the Asia Cup eliminator against Bangladesh, he came back in the World T20 2016 to smash 49 crucial runs off just 19 balls with 4 boundaries and as many maximums to not only avenge the loss in the Asia Cup, but also guide his team to an impeccable total 201 in their group-stage clash against their Asian rivals.
His quintessential contribution with the ball, that saw him pick up two wickets, sealed Bangladesh's fate, who'd later go on to face a heartbreaking defeat against the other Asian giant – India.
Afridi has blown hot and cold throughout the year, but his contributions to the team at important junctures proved invaluable to the team. 5% of our fans who voted believe that Afridi deserved the All-rounder of the year award.
#4 Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan)
There has been just one thing that has stopped the Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi from featuring in the list of the prominent all-rounders in T20I cricket, and that this, well, match practice against quality opposition. Call it bad luck that he is an Afghanistan cricketer (although Nabi wouldn't like to believe so) or the fact that he plays most of his matches against oppositions that are perceived to be weak, but most of his knocks have been brushed under the carpet.
That, however, doesn't take away the sheen from some excellent all-round performances that have been the hallmark of his career as an international cricketer. 227 runs and 18 wickets from 14 matches are good numbers for someone who is in his mid-thirties, especially in the shortest format of the game.
His knock of 52 against Zimbabwe, that helped Afghanistan qualify for the World T20 can be rated as his best knock of the year, while his haul of 2/26 in the only game that Afganistan won in the championship – that too, against the eventual champions, West Indies – that included wickets of Dwayne Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite, can be rated as his best bowling performance.
9% of our fans agree that Nabi should be given the all-rounder of the year award, and they might as well be right.
#3 Hardik Pandya (India)
India have had a couple of finds this year, in terms of young fast bowlers who have come to the fore, and Hardik Pandya, in popular opinion seems to be the most valuable prodigy. That is been more because he can bat and bowl, and less because he has been exceptionally brilliant.
This is not to say that he hasn't been any good. He has been good, but only in parts. However, 16 wickets from 15 T20I matches at an average of 24.00 compensate his meagre tally of 78 runs at 11.14 to a large extent.
Looking beyond the numbers, the impact that he has created on matches is perhaps what makes people rate him so highly. His performance of 3/8 against Pakistan in the crucial Aisa Cup tie from 3.3 overs helped India execute the 83-run mockery of their arch rivals and give their Asia Cup campaign the much-needed initial boost.
Pandya returned to the limelight during the crucial stages of the World T20 with two-wickets each against Bangladesh – a match that India won only by a run – and against Australia – which was virtually a quarter-final – to seize the key moments in India's favour.
These big-match performances coupled with his nationality are the reasons why a whopping 35% of our fans believe that he must be given the all-rounder of the year award. However, in this author's humble opinion, that shouldn't be the case. The next two slides would explain why.
#2 Dwayne Bravo (West Indies)
151 runs and 12 wickets from 11 matches might not match the standards that Dwayne Bravo might have set for himself, but they were enough to help the West Indies resurrect their lost pride to some extent by winning the World T20 2016 and establishing their superiority in one format of the game.
Consecutive hauls of 2/20 against Sri Lanka and South Africa during the league stages of the world tournament helped the Caribbeans to continue their winning run – after Chris Gayle had lit up their tournament opener – while his 3/37 in the final of the tournament against England helped seal the fate of the team to a large extent.
The wickets of Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett, just when the English were trying to press for a bigger total than the 155 which they eventually got, put the brakes on the run-scoring, and Bravo's slower balls had a major role to play in that. With the bat, Bravo scored 25 crucial runs and shared a 75-run stand with Marlon Samuels that helped the Caribbeans inch closer towards the target.
Apart from this performance, and the ‘Champion’ dance that he has popularised all over the globe, Bravo's miraculous last over against India at Lauderhill, USA wherein he prevented MS Dhoni – one of the better finishers of the game – from scoring 8 runs off the last over by dismissing him with a slower one off the last ball of the match thereby enabling the West Indies win the game by 1 run, was another one of is milestones.
These key performances have been a large contributing factor towards the 36% votes that he has received.
#1 Shakib-Al-Hasan (Bangladesh)
While the polls do not agree with this, but the sheer numbers that this man has produced this year, coupled with a couple of big-match performances make him the eventual winner of the T20I all-rounder of the year award.
20 wickets and 260 runs from 16 matches this year speak in abundance about the performances of arguably the greatest all-rounder that Bangladesh have produced.
Shakib's 32 and 2/21 in the Asia Cup tie against Sri Lanka set the tone for the team as far as that tournament was concerned, while his consecutive knocks of 50*, 33, and 22 against Pakistan, Australia, and India in the World T20 2016 gave Bangladesh a chance in each of those games. It was just that his teammates could not capitalise on it.
He picked up 10 wickets in the World T20 alone. His consistency throughout the year coupled with the statistical superiority that he has as compared to the other nominees makes him clinch the award.
Only 15% of our voters, though, thought that Shakib was eligible for this honour.
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