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Pakistan move closer to direct qualification for 2019 World Cup
Pakistan's triumph in
the Champions Trophy has pushed them to sixth in the ICC ODI rankings, and
closer to direct qualification for the 2019 World Cup in England.
Pakistan, who began
the tournament placed eighth, gained four points to move past Bangladesh and
Sri Lanka, who are now ranked seventh and eighth respectively. Hosts England
and the seven highest ranked teams at the cut-off date of September 30, 2017,
receive direct qualification for the next World Cup.
"We've got two
years until the 2019 World Cup," Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said after
beating India in the Champions Trophy final. "We've got the monkey off our
back in terms of qualifying. We now have two years to identify a squad we want
to take forward and give them enough game time."
In
the ODI bowlers rankings, Pakistan's Hasan Ali, who took
13 wickets in five games to be named Player of the Champions Trophy, broke into
the top 10, leapfrogging 12 of his peers to claim the seventh spot.
Batsman Babar Azam moved
up three positions to reach a career-high fifth spot in the batting rankings.
Babar scored 133 runs in five Champions Trophy games, without a fifty. Fakhar
Zaman, who scored two fifties and a hundred in the tournament, was among the
top 100 despite playing just four ODIs.
The top
four spots in both the batting and bowling rankings - with
Virat Kohli and Josh Hazlewood in the lead - remained unchanged.