Winning the Man of the Match award in T20I cricket is the dream of every player who starts playing for his nation in the shortest format of the game. The Indian cricket team made its T20I debut back in 2006. Initially, the seniors were a bit reluctant to play in the shortest format of the sport, but the trends have changed now.
T20 has become one of the most commercial formats of sport, and fans enjoy watching top-quality T20 matches regularly. One of the different things about this format is that anyone can surprise the fans on any given day. Upsets are more frequent in T20Is as compared to Tests, so only the consistent players can survive in this arena.
India has been playing T20I cricket for almost 16 years, and only two players have won a Man of the Match award in three different decades. Here’s a list of those two names.
1. Dinesh Karthik won Man of the Match in three different decades
Dinesh Karthik set a new record for the oldest Indian player to score a half-century in the shortest format of the game. Karthik scored a 29-ball 55 against the South African cricket team and won the Player of the Match award yesterday. He was also the Man of the Match in India’s first T20I in 2006. He also won the prize against Bangladesh in the late 2010s.
2. Rohit Sharma was the first Indian to win Man of the Match in 3 different decades
Indians to Win T20I M.O.M Award in all 3 Decades (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)
Rohit Sharma
Dinesh Karthik*#INDvSA— πΊπππππ (@Shebas_10dulkar) June 17, 2022
Current India captain Rohit Sharma has won the Player of the Match awards many times in his T20I career. He won it in 2007 against South Africa in T20 World Cup.
Then in 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, he won multiple awards, and his most recent award came against the New Zealand cricket team in a bilateral series match played at Eden Gardens last year.
