My Top 5 Cricket Predictions for 2026

2025 has come and gone and what an incredible year it was for cricket. The Women's World Cup saw first-time winners India beat South Africa in a final that did not feature either Australia or England for the first time. The South African Men's Test side beat defending champions Australia in an incredible World Test Championship final at Lord's. England and India played to a thrilling 2-2 draw in a series that culminated in one of the best Test matches of the year. South Africa won a Test series in India for the first time in 10 000 years and the much-anticipated Ashes was over in just 11 days. Individually, Shubman Gill scored millions of runs, Mitchell Starc destroyed England and Wiaan Mulder scored 367* against Zimbabwe. Yes, that actually happened. 2026 is a huge year for cricket and I am sure there will be loads of interesting talking points. Here are some of my predictions for the year ahead:

Zimbabwe will win a series against Pakistan

Zimbabwe travel to Pakistan in April for 3 ODI's and 3 T20I's and will be looking to take advantage of a Pakistan side that hasn't been firing on all cylinders of late. Zimbabwe had a decent 2025 in which they played a helluva lot of Test and T20I cricket and in the 20-over department there were wins against Sri Lanka, Ireland and Namibia to go along with their victory at the ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier. Throughout the year they have unearthed some real talent like Brian Bennett, Ryan Burl, Blessing Muzarabani, Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava. Add to that players like Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor and Tadiwanashe Marumani and I reckon they have a real shout of winning the T20I series.

The ODI series, however, may be a bit more of a challenge for Zimbabwe as, having only played 5 ODI's in 2025, they don't have a lot of form in the format. However, in their most recent ODI series against Sri Lanka they were by no means badly defeated and ran them quite close in both fixtures. Pakistan only won 7 of their 17 ODI's in 2025 and this included a series loss to the West Indies. With players like Ben Curran, Bennett, Muzarabani and Ngarava around, I think Zimbabwe have a big chance here.

New Zealand will win their Test series in England

This is bound to be a good Test series. England do not play any tests between the end of the lost Ashes series and the start of this one. That's a gap of 5 months, during which they play very little cricket apart from a white ball tour of Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup. England will also be hurting after being humiliated in the Ashes, a series in which they really didn't seem to know what they were doing. New Zealand, on the other hand, did rather well in Test cricket in 2025 (although they only played 5 matches all year, against Zimbabwe and West Indies).

The England side that face New Zealand will, in my opinion, be quite different to the side that played in the Ashes. I expect Matthew Potts to play, as well as someone like James Rew and Josh Hull as England look to improve in front of their home fans. For New Zealand, this is a great opportunity to beat England at home and take revenge for the series loss against them at home in late 2024. It may well be the final time Kane Williamson plays Test cricket in England and it may be an opportunity for him to bring up 10 000 Test runs. New Zealand could also have Kyle Jamieson back and seem to have a pace attack well-suited to English conditions with Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, Nathan Smith and the hopefully recovered from injury Will O'Rourke.

I fully expect a result in all 3 Tests here and think New Zealand win it 2-1.

Nepal will reach the T20 World Cup semi-finals

This may seem like a bit of a wild prediction but I don't think it's as crazy as it sounds. Nepal recently won a T20I series against the West Indies who feature in their World Cup group along with England, Italy and Bangladesh. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Nepal narrowly lost to Bangladesh after bowling them out for 106 and lost to eventual finalists South Africa in a match they really should have won. They can certainly beat Bangladesh and West Indies, should have no problem against Italy and can definitely give England a game.

Their T20I cricket has certainly improved since the start of the Nepal Premier League where local players have been rubbing shoulders with international stars and their results in 2025 have shown this. If they can get out of their group, I can absolutely see them pulling a few more surprises and getting all the way to the last 4.

South Africa will be knocked out in the T20 World Cup group stage

It is actually quite hard to believe that South Africa made the previous T20 World Cup final when you look at their results since. Between now and that World Cup, where they came agonizingly close to beating India, they have won just 1 T20I series and have lost 19 of their 29 T20I games in the period including series losses against the West Indies, Australia, England, India and Pakistan and a drawn series against Ireland. They also suffered their first ever defeat to Namibia, conceded 300 against England and were bowled out for their lowest T20I total ever, 74, against India.

It would appear then that South Africa are not a good T20 side, and you'd be mostly right for thinking that. However, they have the players to beat anyone. They may have lost Heinrich Klaasen but they have gained Quinton de Kock and a lot rests on his shoulders. South Africa have used a staggering 35 players in the last year and a half and this is one of the reasons their batters seem to be so out of form. Aiden Markram does not seem to be able to hold a bat at the moment and Reeza Hendricks, their top runscorer since the previous World Cup, has been dropped. Tristan Stubbs has batted in every position possible (when logic says he should bat at 6 and only at 6) and has been unable to find any rhythm so has also been dropped. Dewald Brevis blows hot and cold and must learn to build an innings. David Miller, however, seems to be finding form at a good time and Donovan Ferreira will need to score some runs at the death. Tony de Zorzi has been selected for whatever reason (vibes maybe?) and Jason Smith has been rewarded for his fantastic domestic form.

It doesn't get much better in the bowling department. Lungi Ngidi and Corbin Bosch have been the standouts and will be required to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Kagiso Rabada is back but has not been in great touch. Kwena Maphaka has recovered from injury and has been favored over Ottneil Baartman which surprised many after Baartman's 2024 heroics. Tabraiz Shamsi has seemingly been discarded despite being in great form in T20 franchise cricket while Keshav Maharaj, who has been very below average in T20 cricket has been selected along with George Linde. Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen round out the bowling stocks and will bring much needed pace to the party.

So why do I think they'll exit at the group stage? Well, I actually like the squad when I look at the individuals chosen. But how will they be used? South Africa chop and change their side every match. Not just the personnel, but the batting order as well. A player will do well at one position and then suddenly get selected somewhere else. There is no consistency in selection with the Proteas and in a tough group featuring New Zealand and Afghanistan (in spin friendly conditions), I think it will be really tough for them to escape.

South Africa will win their Test series against Australia and England

Some good news here for South Africa. Their white ball cricket may be going downhill but in Test cricket, South Africa are truly on the up. They won the World Test Championship in 2025 but will not play any test cricket until September when Australia arrive for a 3 match series. The venues for this series have not yet been named but I expect a couple of them will be played on the coast where South Africa can use the spin of Maharaj and Simon Harmer to their advantage. The Proteas have a fairly settled lineup and the likes of Temba Bavuma, Stubbs, Markram and Rickelton will be looking to take on the Australian pace bowlers. South Africa's real advantage lies in the fact that their batting lineup is stronger than Australia's current crop and with the bowling attacks being more or less equal, the batters will be relied on to win these matches, and I think they will.

The story is much the same against England, who arrive in December for 3 Tests. I actually think the Proteas have a far stronger outfit than England and if they can keep players like Joe Root and Harry Brook quiet, as well as nullify the threat of Ben Duckett, they should win this series 3-0. South Africa's bowlers are far stronger than England's and I can see this series coming down to how well England's batters fare against the pace battery they are likely to face. If they bat anything like they did against Australia in the Ashes, the series will be lost fairly quickly. South Africa have not won a Test series at home against England since 2000 and I strongly believe this will change.