Top 5 unsung heroes of 2017

#1 Hashim Amla

Hashim Amla is one of the calmest cricketers going around. You hardly notice him. But he has this excellent appetite for getting big runs. He may seem to be a classical Test batsman, but his record in the limited-overs formats speaks for himself.

In 2017, he’s hardly been noticed and still, he’s scored at an average of 50 in all three formats. In 11 Tests, he’s amassed 942 with 3 hundreds and 4 half-centuries. He played a big part in South Africa’s win against England at Trent Bridge. He scored twin fifties (78 and 87) in the game to help the Proteas set decent first and second innings scores.

In ODIs, he has scored 862 runs in 18 games and 269 runs in 6 T20I games. With the likes of AB de Villiers and de Kock hogging the limelight with their power hitting, Amla in his classical way consistently keeps scoring runs.

Even though Amla has scored more than 2,000 runs this year in international cricket, there’s hardly been any spotlight on him. Hence, he is the #1 unsung hero of this calendar year.