World Cup 2019: How Team India can still get knocked out of the tournament?

Having won five of their opening six games with the other one being washed out, India are in pole position to make it to the semifinal of the World Cup 2019. Only Australia have secured their spot in the last four for the time being while the other three spots are still up for grabs. With a commendable 11 points from possible 12, India are all but sure of progressing ahead. The Men in Blue just need a solitary point to seal their place in the knockout stage of the competition.

India thrashed the Windies in their previous outing to bolster their chances of progressing ahead. It was thorough domination by the side which recently displaced England from the top of the ICC ODI rankings. Batting first, India scored 268 for 7 on a tough pitch before their bowlers bowled out the Caribbeans for a paltry 143. The Men in Blue will be looking to seal their semifinal berth when they take on England next on Sunday.

With India set to play three more games, their progress to the knockouts is looking like just a mere formality. However, if things go horribly wrong for them, then they might fail to make it to the last four too. While the chances of that are very low, one just cannot bet against upsets in the game especially in a big tournament like the World Cup.

Here are the scenarios which can see India exit the competition at the group stage:

For India to miss out on a semifinal spot, almost everything will have to go against them. Not only their results, but the results of the other matches will also have to go against them in order to dump them out of the competition.

1. India need to lose all of their remaining three league matches against England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka by huge margins.

2. Hosts England must win both of their league matches against India and New Zealand.

3. Either Pakistan or Bangladesh should win both their matches by huge margins so they can overtake India in terms of net run rate.

4. New Zealand must have a better net run-rate than India at the end of the group stage if they too finish on 11 points.