Cricket News: English cricket's rollercoaster year of crushing lows and soaring highs

It is worth noting, however, that the outlook surrounding the side could have been more positive. The early parts of 2022 were nothing short of crisis times for the England and the Wales Cricket Board (ECB). 

They had begun the year having been thrashed in Australia during the Ashes. Of the five Tests, England lost four Tests and drew one. 

It was to be the start of a long and arduous time that would eventually lead to change – but not for a little while. 

England followed that up by losing a closely-fought T20I series to West Indies and the subsequent Test series. 

They beat New Zealand after that and comprehensively thrashed the Netherlands in an ODI series, but the real winds of change only began blowing. 

White-ball skipper Eoin Morgan, who was central to their post-2015 revamp in white-ball cricket but had long been struggling for form, retired from international cricket. 

He was replaced by Jos Buttler, long seen as the successor but who had now been elevated before it was expected to happen. 

And the Test squad gained a new skipper in Ben Stokes, who replaced the struggling Joe Root. In came Brendon McCullum as the Test coach, with Matthew Mott named white-ball coach. 

These changes led to a massive reversal of fortunes for the English team. They thrashed New Zealand in the Test series and beat India in a one-off Test that was a continuation of the 2021 series that was disrupted. 

The following white-ball series to India saw England lose in both the ODI and T20I series, but the English squads needed to be at full strength and still did well to compete. 

But a subsequent T20I series loss to South Africa put more doubts in place over the Jos Buttler regime and whether he was the right long-term pick for the side. 

On the Test front, things were going well, and they hammered South Africa 2-1 in the series despite losing the first Test comprehensively. 

But the real sign of progress came in the seven-match T20I series against Pakistan just before the T20 World Cup. 

England won the series 4-3 despite Buttler not being fit and available for most of the series, but some of the younger players – Harry Brook and Phil Salt chief among them – really shone brightly. 

Thus they went into the T20 World Cup with plenty of confidence, and it was a surprise to no one when they ended up winning the tournament. 

Then, to put the cherry on top of a well-baked cake, they hammered Pakistan 3-0 in the subsequent Test series and seem well set to dominate even in 2023. 

It was, in many ways, a year of two halves for English cricket, but they recovered well from their slump early on and will be confident of becoming one of the top sides across formats for the foreseeable future.