Bangladesh’s chance of directly qualifying for WC 2019 increases

Bangladesh’s chance of qualifying directly for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) World Cup 2019 in the United Kingdom has been enhanced as it retained the seventh position in the One Day International Team Rankings.

The Tigers are at seventh position with 91 points, two behind of sixth-ranked Sri Lanka, according to the annual update for the limited over cricket, which was revealed by the world cricket apex body on Monday.

Following the update, seventh-ranked Bangladesh has dropped one point, but its gap over eighth-ranked Pakistan has increased from two points to three and they lead ninth-ranked West Indies by 12 points.

Both Pakistan and West Indies have dropped points - Pakistan slipping from 90 points to 88 points and the West Indies sliding from 83 points to 79 points.

Host England, currently fifth-ranked, and the seven highest-ranked teams on the ICC ODI Team Rankings as on 30 September 2017 will qualify directly for the World Cup to be held from May 30 to July 15, 2019.

Bangladesh is scheduled to play in a tri-series in Ireland, which also features New Zealand, before taking part in the ICC Champions Trophy, according to the current Future Tours Programme.

The West Indies will play host to Afghanistan in a three-ODI series in June before traveling to England where it will play five ODIs in September. Pakistan’s only assignment before the cut-off is the ICC Champions Trophy.

If Bangladesh doesn’t concede any disastrous loss in the series, the team will have a great possibility of qualifying directly for the event.

If the Tigers win two matches against Ireland and one match against New Zealand in the tri-series, it will move ahead of Sri-Lanka in the ODI rankings.