Sports

9th on ICC ranking, Pakistan battles for spot in Champions Trophy

July 17, 2015

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Pakistan is currently struggling at the 9th spot in International Cricket Council (ICC) One-day International (ODI) ranking and faces a stiff challenge to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy to be held in England.

Pakistan must beat 8th ranked West Indies in the tri-series being staged in Zimbabwe in August and September in order to secure a place for the 8-nation event.

According to the rankings released by ICC on Thursday, Bangladesh continued its recent fine run of home form in ODI cricket with an inaugural home series victory over South Africa on Wednesday to mark its four successive home series victory.

With the series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan finely poised at one-all with three ODIs to go, there is expected to be further movement in the rankings table over the coming weeks.

Pakistan lost the second ODI by two wickets after an interesting encounter against Sri Lanka at Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium.

The recent 2-1 triumph helped Bangladesh cement its ICC Champions Trophy 2017 qualification, as well as its seventh place position in the ICC ODI Team Rankings, and it has also closed the gap on sixth-placed England to two points, while the Proteas remain in fourth place having dropped three rankings points to 109.

Following its 3-0 series victory over Zimbabwe, India has maintained its second place ranking but still remains 14 points adrift of Australia which leads the field with 129 points.

Soumya Sarkar had a series he will not forget and his scores of 27, 88 not out and 90 propelled Bangladesh to victory. It also vaulted the 22-year-old 35 places in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen to a career high of 15th with 671 points.

Another upward move for the hosts was Nasir Hossain who has moved up one place to 37th.

The top 10 remains unchanged which means that AB de Villiers retains his first position, with captain Hashim Amla in third. Faf du Plessis has gained one place to 17th after scoring 110 runs in the series.

In the ICC Players Rankings for ODI Bowlers, Shakib Al Hasan has moved up one place to seventh and now lies just one place, and three points, behind Australia’s Mitchell Johnson.

Shakib joined his captain Mashrafe Mortaza in claiming their 200th ODI wicket in the third ODI in Chittagong and Mortaza has now moved up two places to 26th.

But the biggest movers were Rubel Hossain (up 15 places to 40th), Mustafizur Rahman (up 19 places to 69th), Mahmudullah (up 15 places to 75th) and Nasir Hossain (up 18 places to a career high of 92nd).

Leg-spinner Imran Tahir has dropped three places to fifth in a disappointing series for the South African attack this time around, with no front line bowlers making upward progressions in the top 100.

Shakib retains his number one spot in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI All-rounders at 418 points, 17 points in lead when compared with Sri Lanka’s Tillikaratne Dilshan.

Meanwhile, following India’s 3-0 series victory over Zimbabwe which concluded earlier this week, a number of players on both sides have made significant gains.

In the batting ranks, Suresh Raina has moved up one place to 19th, but the biggest mover in the series was Zimbabwe’s Chamu Chibhabha whose 157 runs in the three games (including two half centuries and a top score of 82) vaulted the 28-year-old 33 places to 89th.

India medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has climbed four places to 12th in the Bowling rankings after taking five wickets for 80 in the series.

There were also gains for his team-mates Akshar Patel (up 18 places to a career high of 47th), Mohit Sharma (up seven places to 51st) and Harbhajan Singh who lies just outside the top 100 at 101st position, but has climbed a noteworthy 154 places.

For Zimbabwe, Tendai Chatara (up one to 31st) and Prosper Utseya (up one to 37th), were the chief movers.

ICC ODI Championship Team ranking