Picking 1 Indian star from each format in 2022

India had a rather bleak 2022 when it came to their exploits in international cricket. The Men in Blue failed to reach the finals of both the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup, with a change in captaincy failing to yield results and change the familiar narrative of heartbreak in major tournaments.

India squandered one of the best possible chances to script a Test series win in South Africa, losing 2-1 after taking the lead in the series opener in Centurion. The final nail in the coffin came in the form of ODI series losses against New Zealand and Bangladesh.

But there have been a few rays of hope in this disarray. A few players have stood out with their performances and cemented their place in the squad — if at all possible to do so in the current Indian cricketing climate. So let’s look at 3 best players for India in from each format in 2022:

#1 Tests: Rishabh Pant

Winning games for your country in the most dire situations is a dream scenario for any young cricketer and also a generally accepted barometer of greatness. Rishabh Pant has managed to make this his bread and butter in his short Test career so far. What started as an innings for the ages at the Gabba in January, 2021, has carried on leaps and bounds in 2022, with centuries in both England and South Africa.

What makes it even more impressive is that most of his innings come when the team is under pressure, with his dogmatic counter-attacking style of play usually rescuing the situation.

The 25-year-old has scored 680 runs in 12 innings in 2022, averaging 61.81 with a strike rate of 90.90, backing his heroics of 2021 with another year to remember in his Test career. So no matter the criticisms surrounding his performances in the shorter formats, he has surpassed India's No. 4 to to be the best test player for his country, for two years in a row.

#2 T20I: Suryakumar Yadav

An accurate summary of India's approach in T20 cricket can be this: 3 steps forward, 2 steps back.

But many of those three steps forward came from Suryakumar Yadav's bat alone. His calmness on the pitch, ability to gauge the situation and pre-empt a bowler's options, along with having enough is his armory to access any part of the ground, has catapulted SKY to the top of the T20I batting rankings this year.

Surya scored 1,164 runs in 2022 at an average of 46.56 and a jaw-dropping strike rate of 187.43. He has amassed a couple of centuries in the year and went on to register 7 man of the match awards for himself.

His BASRA (combination of his average and strike rate) is the only indicator that needs to be reviewed to understand that most of Surya's efforts come in match-winning causes.

Surya has numbers that could give Virat Kohli's formidable 2016 record a run for its money. However, his individual brilliance was not enough to bring home the much-awaited T20 World Cup. But 'SKY' is the only limit for Surya, given the vein of form the Mumbai stalwart finds himself in.

#3 ODI: Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer deserves to be praised now as much as he was criticized earlier for his not-so-polished technique against short balls. Iyer has found ways to score runs and has scored bundles of them. He has scored 724 runs this year, at an impressive average of 55.69 with a strike rate of 91.52.

All of this has ensured that he is India's mainstay in the middle order, in a format where the team has been chopped and changed the most in the past year. He is a master when it comes to facing spin bowling and thus earns his major bucks when asked to accelerate in the middle overs.

Shreyas' form bodes well going into the World Cup year, and along with Kohli, he will be India's go-to option during the middle overs in their own backyard.