These teams, New Zealand, Sri Lanka & Pakistan are among those teams which will be cared as an after-thought. All of them are struggling with severe cash crunch with Pakistan slightly better off. There are limited takers for a series involving two of these teams. Not until they are against one of the big 4, India, Australia, England and South Africa, does the series carry any reasonable volume of viewership. These teams operate under tremendous stress. New Zealand is one team in the group that have always punched above their weight. For their credit, they already have a couple of ICC trophies with a Test title that the other two teams does not possess. How was 2024 for New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.

New Zealand

If not for anyone, 2024 was perhaps the greatest year in New Zealand cricket. They have won series in England, Australia and India but the cleansweep of India will be unparalleled. What was a dismal year until then, suddenly became a brilliant one. It took them just 9 days to inflict a wound upon India which will not be forgotten by every Indian supporter. This was a runaway high of the season. The closest that could come to this tremendous achievement was their title win at the inaugural WTC.

“I think there’d be not many pundits around the world [who] would say that you would go to India and win 3-0 and probably deep down, I’m not sure if we even believed that it was possible ourselves to do this, considering it’s never been done in history before,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said.

From 1955, New Zealand have only two wins in India which quickly ballooned to 5 in a matter of weeks.

In the end, normal service resumed with England inflicting severe thrashing in their own country. The 323-run drubbing at Wellington was their worst defeat at home in terms of margin of runs. Earlier in the year, they failed to qualify for the knockouts.

Quite a few players relinquished their central contracts for greener pastures. Williamson, Conway, Ferguson, Milne and Finn Allen became freelance cricketers. They cannot be grudged because playing for New Zealand, they do not get to earn a good amount. They have a family to take care of.

Overall, it has been a dismal year brightened only by the sweep of India.

Pakistan

As for Pakistan, they are not sure what they want to do with Test cricket. The crowds simply are not interested to watch Test cricket. The empty stadiums in Pakistan was quite dismal to look at. If the stadiums are empty, the performances of their cricketers did not inspire much confidence either. The worst came against Bangladesh. It is natural for any team to lose a game but Bangladesh, immediately after that win, were quite dismal themselves in India. How did Pakistan manage to lose a series to them? They hurled from one disaster to another when they were again annihilated in South Africa. Pakistan will have to take Test cricket seriously for them to remain a force. That they are not doing so can be ascertained from the fact that their premier bowler, Shaheen Afridi, chose to skip the South African series in favour of the Champions Trophy.

Even in the T20 World Cup, their performance was poor to say the least. They even managed to lose a game to USA.

Rather surprisingly, they still had one thing to cheer. The series win against England. Finally, Pakistan found the formula to defeat England. They were lurking in the dark during the previous tour and in the first Test.

Sri Lanka

The year can be termed as decent. They won their first ODI series against India after 27 years which was followed by series wins in Bangladesh away and New Zealand at home. However, the best moment came when they defeat England in the 3rd Test with a four pronged pace attack. It must be said that Sri Lanka are slowly building a nucleus.

Wrapping up 2024 for New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan

Not much to write about here.

https://icricketcritique.com/2024-for-australia/
https://icricketcritique.com/2024-for-south-africa/
https://icricketcritique.com/2024-for-england/

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