The new issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly reveals Rashid Khan to be the most valuable T20 player of the 21st century.

Based exclusively on CricViz’s market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket has been awarded an ‘MVP rating’ using a statistical model to rank their ‘match impact’ compared to their peers.

“The most notable takeaway from the list is the prevalence of bowlers,” said CricViz’s Freddie Wilde. “When the T20 format arrived it was blithely assumed that it would be a batsman’s game: the shortened time frame and emphasis on fast scoring would render bowlers helpless, and the new age would be dominated by hard-hitting, explosive batsmen. But while this has, to a degree, been the case, bowlers have had far more influence than expected. Ten of T20’s 20 most impactful players, and three of the top five, are bowlers.”

Khan, who was named CricViz’s MVP with a total average match impact of 7.1, has taken 296 wickets in 211 T20s at an average of 17.22 and an ER of 6.30. His value was rated higher than Jasprit Bumrah who came in second place with Australian batsman David Warner in third. Fellow spinner Sunil Narine was placed fourth with Lasith Malinga eighth – the only other bowler in the top 10.

Wilde added: “The four bowlers who make the top 10 are the format’s leading exponents: Sunil Narine and Lasith Malinga are T20’s greatest spin and pace bowlers respectively, both combining exceptional average match impact with superb longevity, but they are being seriously challenged by the rise of Rashid Khan and Jasprit Bumrah, who do not yet have the same body of work behind them but are so far managing to surpass them on a per-game basis.

“It is no surprise to see the format’s two premier spinners – Rashid and Narine – in the very top bracket. The art of spin bowling has been transformed by T20, with the wrist-spinners Shahid Afridi and Samuel Badree and finger spinners Ajantha Mendis and Saeed Ajmal revolutionising their respective arts through radically new and bold methods. These bowlers bowled flatter, faster, shorter and spun the ball both ways. These new approaches have since been popularised in the respective disciplines by Rashid and Narine.”

To read the feature in full, including CricViz’s Test and ODI MVPs of the century, pick up a copy of the July edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly, available to buy in print and digital formats

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