5 most prolific T20I bowlers in 2017

The past year proved to be a splendid exhibition of the shortest format of the game with multiple records being broken throughout 2017. David Miller smashed his way to a 35-ball hundred against Bangladesh in October, but the record was equaled in just two months time as Rohit Sharma smoked his way to a century against Sri Lanka.

While the bowlers were being carted all over the park, they were also given the hard task to derailing the opposition's innings with some quality bowling. While some bowlers did not have the best of calendar years, here are five bowlers who enjoyed a good year of T20I cricket and finished as the five highest wicket-takers in 2017.

#5 Shadab Khan - 14 wickets

The youngster has bamboozled batsmen with his bag of tricks

The Pakistani leg-spinner has impressed immensely with his skill set that is structured around a traditional leg-break, a troublesome quicker one and a cunning googly, a combination of which bamboozled the best of batsmen through the year.

Shadab started off in fine fashion, clinching the Man of the Match award in his first two games of the year with figures of 4-0-7-3 and 4-1-14-4 against the West Indies. The leg-spinner added three more scalps and finished with ten wickets in the series to kick-start a great year for himself.

In Pakistan's subsequent series win against World XI, Shadab ended up with two wickets from three matches and was lauded for his quality spin bowling.

In what turned out to be Pakistan's last T20 series of the year, Shadab picked a wicket apiece in the first two T20s against Sri Lanka, in a year that also saw him finishing fifth on the bowlers' charts for most wickets in 2017.

#4 Carlos Brathwaite - 14 wickets

Brathwaite was in good nick with the ball

The burly all-rounder enjoyed a good run with the ball in 2017, picking 14 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 15.14 and economy of 7.18.

Brathwaite started the year with five wickets from four matches against Pakistan, including best figures of 3/43 in the second T20I of the series. He continued his good form against Afghanistan, finishing with four wickets from two games in addition to his excellent economy right through the series.

After an expensive wicket-less outing against India, the all-rounder picked three wickets in his three-over outing against England and in the recent T20 encounter against New Zealand, Brathwaite picked two wickets to finish as the fourth highest wicket-taker of the year.

#3 Rashid Khan - 17 wickets

Rashid Khan's prowess with the ball is next to none

Words cannot suffice to express the talent young leg-spinner Rashid Khan possesses. Capable of strangling the best of batsmen with his lethal variations, Rashid has emerged as one of the best spinners in the world and has given a whole new look to Afghanistan cricket as well.

Rashid started off 2017 with a bang, emerging as Afghanistan's highest wicket-taker with nine wickets from five games at a mind-boggling economy of just 3.61 in the Desert T20 challenge.

In his next assignment against Ireland, Rashid finished with nine wickets from three games, including a five-wicket haul that earned him the MOM award. Against West Indies, Rashid was played out cautiously by the Windies batsmen as he managed to pick only two wickets, albeit he finished with an economy of under 4 runs per over to culminate a good year for the youngster.

#2 Kesrick Williams - 18 wickets

Kescrick Williams

The only pacer apart from Brathwaite in the top five T20I wicket-takers of 2017, Kesrick Williams has made rapid strides since his debut for the West Indies in 2016 at the back of splendid performances in the Carribean Premier League for the Jamaican Tallawahs.

The quick did not have the best of starts to the year, picking up only four wickets from four T20 games against Pakistan but found his bearings against Afghanistan, picking up 3-11 of 2.3 overs in the second T20I of the series. He followed it up with three more wickets in the final match to finish with seven wickets from three games.

Against India and England, West Indies played one-off T20s: although Williams was slightly expensive, he made inroads and picked two wickets in both games to finish strong.

In the just concluded first T20 of the three-match T20 series against New Zealand, Williams picked two scalps from his four overs to finish with 18 scalps from 10 games at an average of 15.05 and an economy of 7.63.

#1 Yuzvendra Chahal - 23 wickets

Chahal (R) has emerged as 2017's highest wicket-taker

It wouldn't be wrong to say that Yuzvendra Chahal, the leggie from Haryana, has transformed into skipper Virat Kohli's go-to man in the limited overs format. Chahal started the year with a two-wicket haul against England in the first T20I of the year before he wreaked havoc in Bengaluru, finishing with figures of 6-25 from four overs to stamp his authority early in the year.

After a long gap following the series against England, Chahal returned for the one-off T20I in Sri Lanka where he picked up three wickets in four overs. He followed it up with stong performances against Australia that preceded the New Zealand series, where he was extremely economical, especially in the rain-curtailed eight over game, giving away only eight runs from two overs.

On Sri Lanka's recent tour to India, Chahal picked up the man of the match award with 4/23 in four overs in the first T20I. In the high-scoring game at Indore, Chahal was instrumental in applying breaks on the Sri Lankan attack and picked up four wickets to claim his spot as the highest wicket-taker of the year.