2019 ICC World Cup: Tough road ahead for Pakistan, Windies for direct qualification

Dubai: Pakistan and West Indies have tough task at hand as they fight to get direct qualification for the 2019 ICC World Cup, after they were placed at the eighth and ninth position in the ICC ODI rankings respectively, on Wednesday.

The two teams completed a three-match ODI series on Tuesday, which the Pakistanis won 2-1. West Indies had gotten off to a good start in the tournament, after they chased down a target of 309, their highest successful run chase in ODI history.

ICC Men's ODI Rankings (Photo: ICC/ Screengrab)

However, Pakistan came back in the next two games, to clinch the series 2-1.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, they needed a 3-0 win against the Windies, in order to get direct qualification for the 2019 50-over World Cup.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, qualified for the World Cup, after finishing seventh in the ICC ODI Rankings.

“England and the seven other top teams on 30 September 2017 will qualify directly for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 with the remaining four teams getting a second chance through a 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifying tournament in 2018,” said the ICC media release.

“This (West Indies vs Pakistan ODI series) was the final series before the annual update is carried out on 1 May to ensure the table continues to reflect teams’ recent form with older results being discarded. This means that when the ODI team rankings are overhauled on 1 May, the table will reflect all matches from 1 May 2014 with matches played from 1 May 2016 to carry 100 per cent weighting,” added the cricket's governing body.

South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, England, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are the seven countries to have qualified for the 2019 world Cup, as of yet.