New Delhi, Dec. 31 -- Cricket, at its best, has never just been about numbers. It is about moments and memories carried forward on tired legs and weary shoulders.

This year, Indian cricket celebrated a watershed triumph, said painful goodbyes without fully letting go, and discovered leadership in an unsuspecting individual.

Across a team in transition, the ripple of a historic win, the old guard fighting to remain relevant and a new head seeking legitimacy, one theme cut through the noise: the realisation that something is changing.

A crown earned

India's ICC Women's ODI World Cup triumph was not merely a win. It was a reckoning. For decades, women's cricket in the country lived in the margins - underfunded, under-televised, and most ...