Pakistan has a tough road ahead to automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup

Currently ranked no.9 in the ICC One-Day International (ODI) rankings, the Pakistan cricket team has a tough road ahead of them to automatically qualify for the World Cup 2019.

The top 8 teams will have a direct qualification for the World Cup and the men in green are at 9, behind Bangladesh and West Indies. Ahead of the series against England, they were having 87 points at the same rank. And the series was considered to be an opportunity for them to come back to the top 8 rankings, but they lost the series 4-1 and now have just 86 points against their name.

This is their lowest-ever points tally since the current rankings system was introduced in 2001. This downfall had left a mountain to climb as they are all set to take on West Indies and Australia later this year.

Australia had added one more point to their lead over the second-ranked New Zealand after the 4-1 series win over Sri Lanka. Australia has moved from 123 points to 124 points whereas Sri Lanka lost one point to remain at no.6.

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The one-point drop of Sri Lanka will lift the eyes up for Bangladesh as they are just 3 points behind Sri Lanka now. And they are now heading towards an ODI series against Afghanistan and England. If Bangladesh can win all matches against Afghanistan and one win against England, they will mark their highest rank ever in their cricket history at no.6. The series win against Pakistan has seen England gain 1 point to reach 107 points in fifth position three behind India and South Africa.

The host country, England and the 7 highest-ranked teams as of 30 September 2017 will qualify directly for the World Cup 2019, whereas the remaining 2 teams will be selected from the 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.