2018: The year that had it all.
2018 produced a lot of wonderful moments in cricket. Be it in the international arena or even in the domestic leagues, the fans were completely enthralled by the quality of cricket.
It is indeed a heartening sight to see the rise of Afghanistan. For a nation that is being completely ravaged by wars, the success story of Afghanistan is definitely worth sharing across all ages.
The performances of Rashid Khan and the young Mujeeb Ur Rehman for their respective Indian Premier League franchises have received praise from across the world. Moreover, because of their consistent performances in the limited overs format and the ICC Intercontinental Cup, they were granted Test match status.
They played their first Test match in June 2018 against India. It is a remarkable effort for a team, to earn a Test match status within just 17 years after its inception.
Afghanistan is taking giant strides in international cricket. They could be a hard nut to crack in the near future.
2018 also witnessed the retirement of three great legends. With just one year to go for the World cup, AB de Villiers shocked the cricketing world by announcing his retirement in May. He was one of the few multi-talented sportsmen, who was very humble too. But when he walked out to bat in the middle, he made sure that his bat did all the talking.
England too lost its valuable asset in the retirement of Alastair Cook. Being an opening batsman, he blunted the opposition attacks and scored tonnes of runs with his sound technique.
His career had a fairytale finish as he scored an incredible century against India in his last Test match at The Oval. He ended up playing the most number of matches and scored most number of runs and centuries for England in Tests.
Sri Lanka suffered a huge loss because of the retirement of Rangana Herath. For a large part of his career, he played under the shadows of the great Muttiah Muralitharan. Herath's career was a story of never giving up.
He holds the record of taking most number of wickets in Tests after the age of 35. Possessing a simple action, he troubled the best of the batsmen through his flight and deception.
All these legends decided to call it time in their own terms.
The year also saw a lot of records being broken. England posted the highest ever ODI score of 481 against Australia at Trent Bridge. The Australian attack lacked spice and was hammered to all corners of the ground.
But truly speaking, the year 2018 definitely belonged to Virat Kohli. He became the fastest batsman to score 10,000 One Day International runs and 1,000 runs in a calendar year. More than his personal milestones, the way he scored his runs against all attacks at different conditions clearly showed why he is regarded as the best batsman in the world.
With the introduction of Twenty over leagues in South Africa and United Arab Emirates (Afghanistan Premier League) and the telecast of various domestic matches all over the world, there is a lot of commercialization and revenue generation happening.
Perhaps, 2018 should be best remembered for the away series victories achieved by various teams. India humbled South Africa 5-1 in the One Day Internationals. England too, with its exciting bunch of players, blanked Sri Lanka 3-0 in the Test series. The Kiwis shocked the Pakistanis in their adopted home, the UAE by winning the Test series 2-1.
With the conditions, pitch and crowd support favoring the home team, it takes a lot of planning and execution to win a series at their own backyard.
So, there you have it. A rise of a cricketing nation, shattering of records, the retirement of legends, clinching of away series victories, 2018 was definitely an eventful cricketing year.
With less than 4 months to go for the World Cup and the Test Championship coming up, one can definitely hope that 2019 too brings a year of riveting cricketing action.