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.
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?
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 .
by Annesha Ghosh
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
Women's cricket oscillated between extremes in 2021. The inaugural Hundred was the headline act. Breaking new ground in the UK, the success of the women's competition surpassed that of its men's counterpart, reaching new audiences and belatedly forcing a review of the female competitors' pay<;/a>.
In Australia, the WBBL got a record crowd for its final, and a record overall broadcast audience, which vindicated Cricket Australia's decision to make every game available on television for the first time in the competition's seven-year history. The tournament featured its largest Indian contingent, although it was the South Africans who played starring roles in the knockouts, like they did in the Hundred.
Standout individual feats included Sophia Dunkley becoming the first black woman to play Test cricket for England, West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor becoming the youngest to make 8000 international runs, India captain Mithali Raj reaching the top of the run charts in the women's international game, Ireland's Amy Hunter breaking the record for the youngest player to make a senior international century, and Australia allrounder Ellyse Perry becoming the first woman to the double of 5000 runs and 300 wickets.
Towards the close of the year, the game lost one of its pioneers, former England allrounder Eileen Ash, who died at 110.
High point
The ICC replaced the word "batsman" with the gender-neutral "batter" in all its playing conditions, during the men's T20 World Cup in October-November. The move, described by the governing body as a "natural and overdue evolution" in the sport, followed the MCC's amendments regarding the term in the Laws of Cricket, aimed at recognising cricket as "a game for all".
Low point The cancellation of the ODI World Cup Qualifier in November-December. Sri Lanka had played no cricket between March 2020 and the qualifying event, and it cost them dearly after team standings came into play to determine the final three entrants to the 2022 World Cup. Thailand, meanwhile, got a raw deal despite being a frontrunner for a top-five finish in the qualifier, which would have ensured their inclusion in the next Women's ODI Championship cycle.
Ireland
by Peter Della Penna
After a mostly charmed decade in the 2010s, the start of the 2020s has not been too kind to Ireland. Though they gained Test status in 2017, they have not played a match in the format since 2019, leaving many people within the Irish set-up wondering when another will happen.
They did not exactly cover themselves in glory in the limited-overs formats in 2021. The year started off with Ireland two out of three Super League ODIs to Netherlands in Utrecht in July was a jarring result. They bounced back somewhat to claim 15 out of a possible 30 points (ten from a win and five for a no result) in each of their home ODI series later in the summer
High point Beating South Africa for the first time ever in ODIs: a century by captain Andy Balbirnie propelled Ireland to a 43-run win in Malahide on July 13.