Bangladesh overtook Pakistan in the ICC one-day international rankings to claim the eighth position after the world cricket’s governing body completed the annual update on Thursday. The updated rankings saw West Indies and Bangladesh have equal 88 points but the Tigers are lagging behind only by a fraction. Pakistan, who lost all three ODIs to Bangladesh in recent series, slipped to ninth place with 87 points.
The annual update is carried out to ensure the table continues to reflect results from the last three years.
As such, results from 2011-12 have been dropped while the results from 2013-14 have been reduced to a weighting of 50 per cent.
Bangladesh held eighth position in rankings briefly in 2010 and 2012 when they beat New Zealand and West Indies respectively by 4-0 and 3-2 in bilateral home series.
The rankings have an added significance as teams that will stay in top-eight on September 30 cutoff date will qualify for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in England.
West Indies have no one-day international scheduled until the period while the Tigers will play at least two series against India and South Africa in June and July.
Pakistan also have the chance to topple the Tigers should they win a significant number of matches up to the cutoff date. Up to September they are scheduled to play at least eight ODIs – three against Zimbabwe at home in May and five away to Sri Lanka in July.
World Cup winners Australia have doubled their lead over second-ranked India after the annual update.
-With New Age input
