A YEAR of plenty for Zimbabwe, at least when it comes to volume of cricket, resulted in limited success and plenty of learning.

Though not in the World Test Championship, Zimbabwe played only one Test fewer than Australia in 2025, as they sought to make a case for inclusion in the elite club and expose their players to the highest level of competition.

They won two, to record their first victories in the format in four years, but of their eight losses, five were by margins of an innings and some, which suggested the gap to the other teams remains significant in this format.

It may be closing in other formats, where Zimbabwe, after being the only Full Member to miss out on the 2024 T20 World Cup, booked their place in the 2026 event.

Importantly, their year was stable in back-room terms, with the same head coach, Justin Sammons and support staff building a solid base.

While their experienced core remains firmly in place, young talent is coming through.

Top-order batter Brian Bennett scored his maiden Test, ODI and T20I hundreds in 2025.

Meanwhile, left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava became the first Zimbabwean to score 100 T20I wickets.

T20I captain Sikandar Raza rose to No. 1 in the ICC’s T20 allrounder rankings, Test captain Craig Ervine was their sec-ond highest run-scorer in that format, and 39-year-old Brendan Taylor completed a triumphant return after serving a three-and-half-year ban for breaching the ICC’s code of conduct.

But for Sean Williams, their best Test batter in 2025 and over the last five years, the tale was tragic.

Zimbabwe Cricket confirmed the termination of his national contract when he entered a drug rehabilitation pro-gramme.

Zimbabwe’s women played their first series since being included on the FTP and will play in the T20 World Cup qualifiers in Nepal in January.

High point: Playing in England for the first time in 22 years could have marked a return to relevance for Zimbabwe, but it ended in a hefty defeat, so this honour will go to Zimbabwe’s successful T20 World Cup qualifying campaign.

After failing in their three attempts (2019 ODI World Cup, 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup), Zimbabwe booked their place in 2026. Taylor scored his first T20I century, against Botswana, to put his side one win away from qualification, and they got there against Kenya.

Low point: Most of Zimbabwe’s Test fixtures were chastening — none more so than the two-match Test series against South Africa. Stand-in South Africa captain Wiaan Mulder retired on 367 not out, ostensibly because he did not want to take the Test highest score record off Brian Lara, but also to spare Zimbabwe’s blushes. The innings-and-236-run loss was their heaviest — until the following month, when they lost by an innings and 359 runs to New Zealand.

Men

Tests:   P10      W2       L8

ODIs:   P5        W2       L3

T20Is: P25      W10     L13      NR2

Women

ODIs:   P8        W3      L5

T20Is: P13      W7      L6 — ESPNcricinfo