Cricket: What 2018 has taught us?

The year 2018 has had its fair share highs and lows in terms of cricket. No other year has seen this much ups, and downs in recent times. It is time to look back at the year that was, and chronicle the good and the bad. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of my list.

This year saw Chennai Super Kings returning after a two-year gap and winning the IPL, New Zealand, and England winning their first Test tour in Asia in a long time, the sandpaper gate incident, and many such events.

There is always great learning to take from episodes of this great game. Thus, in this article, we will look at what the year 2018 has taught us in terms of Cricket.

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#5 Old is Gold in T20s

Probably one of the highlights of the year

IPL season 11 was marketed as the year of Chennai Super Kings's return. There was one other team from Rajasthan who made their return, but the emotions of the fans from Chennai was the reason for this type of build up.

Chennai's buys at the auction raised a lot of eyebrows because of them picking a lot of aged cricketers, and this led them to be criticized from cricket analyst all over the world. Little did they know of what was going to transpire in the months to follow.

Super Kings from Chennai defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their third IPL Championship, and in the process becoming the most successful team in the tournament's history.

One of the major reason for CSK's triumph was the experience of their players. Most of their victories came after match-winning performances of their senior cricketers who at the start of the tournament coined as aged cricketers.

No one could have scripted a better comeback than Chennai Super Kings, and it was the perfect homecoming of the city's adopted son Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

#4 Retirement are always sad

The Superman from South Africa announced his retirement.

While the emergence of new blood is always heartening to see, it also simultaneously spells the end for some seasoned veterans. Retirements are part and parcel of any game let alone Cricket, and it will be sad to see the legends of the game who have entertained the fans for more than a decade call it a day, but that is how the life goes.

The year 2018 has broken a lot of hearts mostly because of the retirements. The year saw legends like Ab de Villiers, Morne Morkel, Rangana Herath, Dwayne Bravo, Alaistar Cook, and Gautam Gambhir call it a day.

While ABD, Cook, and Bravo will continue to play club level cricket, it will be hard to see them not representing their country. All these cricketers have inspired and touched a lot of the budding cricketers from all over the world, and it is time for them to continue to the legacy left behind these legendary stars.

#3 Redemption of Test Cricket has begun

One of the best years for Test Cricket

Let's face it Test is the best format of the game by miles, but the format has found it difficult to garner fans like the white ball format, and this is mainly due to its slow pacing.

But 2018 has been the year of Test Cricket, from the arrival of two new nations in this format to the evenly contested games in the difficult situation, and with the announcement of ICC Test Championship which is supposed to begin in the second half of 2019.

This year saw a usual routine of the home side winning the series broken. New Zealand defeated Pakistan in Asia, England had Sri Lanka on the mat in their home soil, and India is now leading the series against Australia in the tour down under. These victories are signs of better things to come in the future.

If this trend continues, then it is safe to that Test cricket is in safe hands.

#2 Bowling is constantly improving

The rise of Bumrah

While a good batting line-up is necessary for any team, it is bowling that wins any cricket. A test match can be won only if a team at least manages to take 20 wickets. It is safe to say that the bowling department of every team has improved in 2018.

The year 2018 saw the rise of Jasprit Bumrah as the Test player which in the process made India become one of the most lethal bowling attacks in the moment. The likes of Rabada, Jimmy Anderson, Pat Cummins, Trent Boult, and Mohammad Abbas continued their merry run of form. But apart from this, there are two specific stats that confirm that 2018 has been the year of bowlers.

This year is the first year since 1988 that the number of five-wicket hauls has been greater than the number of hundreds that were scored, and also since 1959, this is the lowest batting average in Test match cricket.

#1 No player is greater than the game

The Sandpaper gate incident

The biggest lesson to be learned from this year that no player is bigger than the game itself. One of the big test playing nations brought a lot of hardship, trauma to the fans all over the world with this horrific incident.

The aftermath of this event, Two of the finest cricketers to play this game and a promising young player from Australia were banned. This incident took place in South Africa when the Australians found it difficult to reverse swing the ball.

While ICC only banned these players for two matches, the Australian board took the matter into their own hands and banned Steve Smith, and David Warner for a whole year, and Cameron Bancroft for nine months.

This decision by the Australian board sent a clear message that none of the players are above the game. This verdict also showed how the Australians played the game. The Australian team is still finding to recover from this horrific incident, but that is what happens when a team does not play by the rules.