KL Rahul has scored the highest runs in T20I cricket in the calendar year 2020, all as opener for India. He has an aggregate of 404 runs in 10 innings at an average of 44.88 and strike rate of 140.76 including 4 fifties in 2020. He has been phenomenally consistent failing in just one of the 10 innings in the calendar year.
Jos Buttler has scored 291 runs in 8 innings as an opener - the standout feature of his batting being his strike rate of 150.77. He registered 3 fifties - two against South Africa and one against Australia. Even more significantly, two of these helped his team to a series win. Buttler edged out the great Babar Azam of Pakistan who had a higher average but played 4 of his 6 matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
Dawid Malan has had an incredible start to his T20I career. He has an aggregate of 855 runs in 19 innings at an average of 53.43 and strike rate of 149.47 including a hundred and 9 fifties. From number 3, he has scored 386 runs in 9 innings at 55.14 and a strike rate of 144.56 including 4 fifties in 2020.
Kane Williamson did what he does best - played the role of the playmaker in the middle-order - and set up New Zealand's 9 wicket win against Pakistan in the second T20I at Hamilton. His calm and composed unbeaten 57 off 42 deliveries ensured a series win for New Zealand.
Eoin Morgan hammered an unbeaten 57 off just 22 deliveries from number 5 in the series decider at Centurion in February 2020 helping England chase down South Africa's mammoth total of 222 with 5 balls to spare. Overall, he scored 238 runs in the year at a strike rate of 173.72 - the highest for any batsman who scored a minimum of 200 runs from positions 3-5 in 2020.
Not a difficult choice for number 6. One of the most destructive batsmen in the format, as he displayed for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2020 too, Kieron Pollard scored 168 runs in 4 innings but a phenomenal strike rate of 204.87.
The second all-rounder's slot goes to Ashton Agar of Australia who picked 13 wickets in just 6 matches at 12.46 apiece at a brilliant economy rate of just 6.75 in the calendar year. His best performance of 5-24 in 4 overs came against South Africa in Johannesburg earlier this year.
It was a difficult choice between the two leg-spinners but Adil Rashid just edged out Adam Zampa courtesy his performance in the big matches.
Mitchell Starc and Jasprit Bumrah stand out amongst fast bowlers in 2020, not so much for their quintessential quality of picking wickets, but their splendid restrictive abilities. While Bumrah had a phenomenal economy rate of just 6.38, Starc picked 8 wickets in 7 matches at an economy rate of 7.87 in 2020.
A left-arm fast hostile bowler and a right-arm fast yorker specialist at the death - a lethal combination in the XI of the year. Bumrah's best performance of the year (3-12 in 4 overs at Mount Maunganui) helped India sweep the series 5-0 in New Zealand.
Lungi Ngidi walks into the XI on the basis of the sheer number of wickets he has taken in the year - the South African has bagged 17 wickets in just 9 matches at a strike rate of 11.7 in 2020.