New Zealand's golden year, Pakistan's World Cup highs, and the success of the women's Hundred

by Deivarayan Muthu
It was a banner year for New Zealand. After becoming the No. 1 ODI team, they won the inaugural World Test Championship final and then reached their first T20 World Cup final.

They won each of the three ODIs they played in 2021 despite the injury-enforced absence of regular captain Kane Williamson. In some major changes, BJ Watling retired from Test cricket and Ross Taylor was dropped from the T20I set-up. A number players, though, emerged from the fringes and played vital roles for the side across formats, including Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell, Will Young, Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra.

Like Williamson, Lockie Ferguson, their premier fast bowler in white-ball cricket, was unavailable at various points because of injury, but New Zealand still found a way to succeed thanks to their enviable depth. Their second-string T20I side even tested a full-strength Bangladesh away.

Once New Zealand returned to full strength, they adapted smartly to conditions in the UAE and progressed to the T20 World Cup final from a group that included Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. The final, however, didn't go according to plan, nor did the India tour that followed immediately.

High point
New Zealand emerged winners of the inaugural WTC, two years after losing the ODI World Cup without actually losing it. It was quite fitting that the old firm of Williamson and Taylor sealed victory in fiendishly difficult conditions for batting in Southampton after Kyle Jamieson, the newbie in the attack, set it up beautifully with his swing, seam, and bounce.

Low point
While left-arm fingerspinner Ajaz Patel made history by becoming only the third bowler to bag all ten wickets in a Test innings, in Mumbai, the rest of the line-up fell away so badly that New Zealand's ten-match unbeaten streak was snapped. They began the year as the top-ranked Test side and slipped to No. 2 by the end of it after losing 1-0 in India.

by Danyal Rasool
Pakistan cricket truly put its followers through the wringer of stratospheric highs and sub-zero depths in 2021. The bottom line will tell you this side, led by Babar Azam, won a lot more than they lost, and look like a team reinvigorated.

T20I success headlined the narrative, with home and away wins over South Africa, a delightfully dominant T20 World Cup campaign, and a clean sweep of West Indies to finish the year. A home Test series win over South Africa was perhaps the red-ball highlight, a heartening point being Hasan Ali's return to form in Tests. After Shaheen Afridi, Hasan has the most Test wickets for Pakistan this year. Pakistan are currently sitting pretty in the top two of the World Test Championship table.

All wasn't rosy, though. A third-string England side clean-swept Pakistan in an ODI series in July, and Zimbabwe embarrassingly skittled them for 99 in a chase of 119.

In an administrative shake-up, Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan were replaced as chairman and CEO by Ramiz Raja and Faisal Hasnain, in what still feels like a makeshift, experimental set-up. Head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis, too, departed in somewhat contentious circumstances, and are yet to be replaced full-time.

Most devastatingly of all, the year showed the ";Western bloc", as Ramiz put it, remains far from convinced Pakistan is a safe place to visit. First, New Zealand withdrew from a series minutes before the start of the first game, citing unspecified security concerns, before England plunged the knife in further by refusing to repay Pakistan's favour of a tour in uncertain Covid times in 2020, pulling out of their men's and women's tours.

High point
A ten-wicket thumping of India in the sides' opening match at the T20 World Cup. Pakistan marched to the semi-finals unbeaten, where…

Low point
… they ran into another of their old foes, Australia, who kept intact their hold over Pakistan in ICC knockout events, sealing a sensational heist with six balls to spare.

By Andrew Fidel Fernando
If you're an optimist, 2021was a year of regeneration for Sri Lanka's top men's team. In T20Is, the year saw the full blossoming of Wanindu Hasaranga - currently the top T20I bowler in the world - the re-emergence of fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera, and the arrival of top-order batter Charith Asalanka. In Tests, Pathum Nissanka made a relatively smooth transition to batting at the top level; left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama, and offspinning allrounder Ramesh Mendis began with promise; and the senior batters moved up a gear too. Dimuth Karunaratne can perhaps now be regarded one of the best openers of his era (however thin that field may be), and Lahiru Thirimanne and Dhananjaya de Silva also averaged more than 50 for the year.

But here's the pessimists' view: many of these gains are fragile. Although the rise of fresh talent was heartening, Sri Lanka's win-loss record in the limited-overs formats, particularly ODIs, remains woeful. This though they have increasingly become a side against whom top sides rest their front-line players. They turned heads in the T20 World Cup, sure, but didn't make a serious semi-finals charge. And for all the experience in that Test top order, it produced some of the most tragicomic collapses of the year.

Sri Lanka head into 2022 without coaching staff, with SLC's technical advisory committee, headed by Aravinda de Silva, seemingly intent on installing new coaches. Will the new set-up be able to build on 2021's gains?

High point
The victories over Bangladesh and West Indies in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup, plus competitive outings against South Africa and England.

Low point
The unfathomably meek collapses against England, in the Test series in January.

by Nagraj Gollapudi
Hope and despair. The West Indies fan knows these two contrasting emotions better than anybody.

The year started full of hope, when the debutant pair of Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner stitched together a record partnership to mow down a large target set by Bangladesh and help West Indies to a 2-0 win - their blanked out 2-0 by South Africa in a home Test series. The Test team would finish the year with another 2-0 defeat, this time in Sri Lanka.

Their fortunes were similar in white-ball cricket. In April, Kieron Pollard's team shook Australia with a 4-1 T20I series win at home. On September 9, former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum .