Pakistan cricket team ended the year with another Test defeat against Australia in the second Test in Melbourne. It was Pakistan’s 11th consecutive defeat in Australia.

Overall it was a mixed year for Pakistan team that tasted success in Test cricket earlier this year even reaching top position in the ICC Test team rankings. Yasir Shah became number one Test bowler in the ICC ranking and Misbah received the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award.

But on the other hand there were a few setbacks which came in the limited-overs formats and at one stage the green shirts slipped to ninth position in the ODI rankings.

Pakistan played 11 Tests during the year: four against England (2-2), three against West Indies (2-1), two against New Zealand (0-2) and two in the ongoing series against Australia out of which the hosts won both Tests at Brisbane and Melbourne.

Pakistan played 11 ODIs and won only five of them -- two against New Zealand (0-2), one against Ireland (1-0), five against England (1-4) and three against West Indies (3-0).

Pakistan played 15 Twenty20 Internationals, four against New Zealand (1-3), two each against India (0-2) and Bangladesh (1-1), one each against the UAE (1-0), Sri Lanka (1-0), Australia (0-1), and England (1-0) and three against the West Indies (3-0). So Pakistan won eight and lost seven.

In February 2016, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) launched its first cricket league "Pakistan Super League (PSL)". One of the positive aspects of PSL was that it gave Pakistani players the chance to share dressing rooms with renowned international players and gain valuable experience. The local players also gained financially -- amounts that they had never achieved from domestic cricket.

In the first edition of PSL, five teams participated. Each franchise consisted of a total of 16 players, including five foreign players. The winners of the first PSL were Misbah-ul-Haq’s Islamabad United who beat Sarfraz Ahmed’s Quetta Gladiators in the final.

The Twenty20 Asia Cup was held in Bangladesh. Pakistan were knocked out from the tournament when they lost to arch-rivals India and hosts Bangladesh. The reason for the failure once again was poor batting, especially from the top order.

Against Bangladesh, Pakistan scored only 34 runs in the first ten overs, the lowest in Twenty20 Internationals. Their previous lowest was 35 for 4 against West Indies in World Twenty20 in 2014, also in Dhaka.

The sixth edition of the World Twenty20 was held in India from March 8 to April 3. Pakistan were not among the favourites after the Asia Cup debacle, but the way they exited from the tournament was not expected.

Pakistan, after a brilliant start in the tournament against Bangladesh, in which they scored over 200 runs, lost against India, New Zealand and Australia.

It was the second time that Pakistan failed to qualify for the semi-finals in World T20.

Generally it is believed that India have the world’s best batting lineup and that Pakistan’s bowling attack is among the best. But Pakistani bowlers proved this perception wrong in the Asia Cup and then in World T20.

With the World T20 exit, Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi’s career ended. In December 2014, Afridi had announced that he would retire from ODIs after the 2015 World Cup in Australia, but will play Twenty20 international cricket till the 2016 World T20. "I want to not only play but also captain the Pakistan team to the T20 World Cup title," he had said. But unfortunately the Boom Boom could not do that.

In his two decades of international cricket, Shahid Afridi played 27 Tests (1716 runs, 48 wickets), 398 ODIs (8064 runs, 395 wickets) and 98 T20 Internationals (1405 runs, 97 wickets).

In summer, Pakistan toured England, where the four-Test series ended in a 2-2 draw.

Pakistan’s chances for the number one position were strengthened by the 10-wicket win over England in the fourth Test at the Oval which levelled the series. Number one Australia unexpectedly lost 0-3 against Sri Lanka and the third Test between West Indies and India ended in a draw.

Misbah’s side became only the fifth team after Australia, England, India and South Africa to top the ICC Test rankings since these were introduced in 2003.

There is a huge difference between Pakistan and other teams who secured the top position. Pakistan have not played at home for seven years, missing the benefits of home ground and crowd.

Although we lost our biggest match-winner Saeed Ajmal, we continued to win.

The good thing about this team is that it played as a unit and without many big names. A few good young players played as a team and beat the top Test teams during the period.

During the England tour, Pakistan ace spinner Yasir Shah has become the number-one ranked bowler in the world after he bowled Pakistan to 75 runs victory over England in the first Test at Lord’s.

Yasir was the first Pakistan bowler to top rankings since Mushtaq Ahmed achieved the distinction in December 1996, while Shane Warne was the last wrist spinner to surge to the number-one position in December 2005.

Pakistan are the only ones to have a huge ranking gap in Tests and ODIs. They are among the top three in the longest version of the game but eighth in ODIs and seventh in T20.

It was a common perception that Pakistan had the world’s best bowling attack and that their batting was fragile. But they proved it wrong in the third ODI against England at Trent Bridge on August 30 when they conceded a record 444 runs. Pakistan managed to take only three wickets.

The previous highest team total in One-day International was 443 by Sri Lanka against Netherlands at Amstelveen in 2006.

Wahab Riaz conceded 110 runs in his 10 overs. It was the most expensive bowling ever from any Pakistani bowler. He was just three runs behind 113 conceded by Australian fast bowler Mick Lewis against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2005-06.

In October, Pakistan won the three-match Test series 2-1. After winning the first Test in Dubai by 56 runs in Dubai and the second by 133 runs in Abu Dhabi, they lost the third in Sharjah by five wickets.

Pakistan lost both Tests in New Zealand in November. At Christchurch, New Zealand won by eight wickets and at Hamilton Pakistan were beaten by 138 runs.

In December Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq received the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award. He became the first Pakistan cricketer to win the award.

Pakistan opener Azhar Ali also made 2016 memorable with his outstanding performances in Tests.

Azhar became the first Pakistani batsman to score 200 or more in a year twice. Before his 205 not out in Melbourne, he had made unbeaten 302 in the first day-night Test against West Indies at Dubai in October.

He is also the first Pakistan batsman to score a double-century in Tests in Australia. The previous best was Majid Khan’s 158 at the MCG in 1972-73.

During the ODI series against West Indies in UAE this September Babar Azam became the third Pakistani batsman to score three consecutive ODI hundreds, after Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar.