New Delhi: The year 2024 was full of ups and downs for Indian cricket and while the team ended the long wait to win the ICC (International Cricket Council) trophy, it had to face defeat in the domestic series. This year also saw a period of change in Indian cricket. It started with the expected and unexpected retirement of some legendary players.

The Indian cricket team was desperate to win the ICC trophy because in the last decade it has been out in the knockout stage most of the times. This includes the final of the ODI World Cup last year where it had to face defeat from Australia. But the team led by Rohit Sharma performed brilliantly from start to finish in the T20 World Cup played in America and West Indies and won the trophy.

India had kept four spinners in the team, out of which only Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav got a chance to play. Jadeja did not get much chance to show his talent in batting and bowling but Kuldeep and Akshar proved to be trump cards for India. The fast bowling pair of Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh also played their role well by taking 15 and 17 wickets respectively.

Rohit led from the front in batting. He left no stone unturned in destroying the attack of the opposing teams with his fearless batting. His opening partner Kohli could not contribute much in the initial matches but in the final he played a brilliant innings of 76 runs when the team looked in trouble due to a bad start.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, who was appointed captain after this tournament, and Rishabh Pant, who returned after being injured in a car accident, also made notable contributions. Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja bid farewell to T20 international cricket after the Indian team became the champion. It was also a great farewell for head coach Rahul Dravid, whose tenure ended after the T20 World Cup.

After Rohit's retirement, there was a lot of expectation that Hardik would take over the captaincy in the shorter format but Gautam Gambhir, who replaced Dravid as the head coach, had a different opinion as he played a key role in making Suryakumar Yadav the captain of India's best T20 batsman.

In India's tour of South Africa for the T20 series, Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson showed their brilliance in batting while Varun Chakraborty in bowling.

However, India had to face an unexpected defeat of 0-3 in the three-Test match home series against New Zealand. Earlier, the Indian team had shown its aggressive attitude and defeated Bangladesh in both the Test matches.

It was expected that the Indian team would adopt a similar attitude against New Zealand as well but the circumstances changed suddenly and New Zealand defeated them in all three matches. After this, discussions started about the future of some senior players and the recent sudden retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin is also being considered a result of this.

Jay Shah becomes the new president of the ICC later this year, which also reflects India's influence in world cricket. He is the fifth Indian to hold this post after Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar.

Shah immediately made his presence felt by dispelling the clouds of doubt that were looming over the Champions Trophy to be hosted by Pakistan. India need not visit Pakistan for the Champions Trophy and will play its matches in Dubai. Similarly, Pakistan will play its matches in a neutral venue for the tournament to be held in India.

This year's Indian Premier League (IPL) auction was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in which Rishabh Pant (Rs 27 crore) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 26.75 crore) were the most expensive players sold.

If we talk about the performance of the Indian women's team, it was eliminated early in the T20 World Cup but it recently made up for it by defeating West Indies in the home T20 series. This is the first time in the last five years that the Indian team has won a home series.