Pakistan will have a tough task on its hands when it goes head to head with the West Indies in a five-ODI series which starts on Saturday in St Lucia, a country where it lost a sensational ICC World Twenty20 2010 semi-final by three wickets to Australia 11 months ago.
Sixth-place Pakistan starts the series with a difference of 35 rating points relative to eighth-placed West Indies in the Reliance ICC ODI Championship table. This gap means it is expected to win the series convincingly. As such, because the rankings are weighted to reflect this difference, failure to win comfortably will mean Pakistan will drop points.
In fact, the only way Pakistan will not drop points is in the scenario of it winning all the matches of the series. In this situation, Pakistan will earn just one rating point while the home side will concede two ratings points.
However, if Pakistan wins the series 4-1, it will surrender one ratings point while in case of a 3-2 series win it will drop three points. In sharp contrast, the West Indies will earn points in both these scenarios - one in case of a 4-1 defeat and three in case of a 3-2 loss.
In the Reliance ICC ODI Player Rankings, the highest-ranked players from either side are Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi who is third in the all-rounders’ list and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal who is in 17th spot in the bowlers’ table.
In the absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, at least from the first two ODIs, the highest-ranked West Indies batsman is Dwayne Bravo in 76th position. Meanwhile, there is no Pakistan batsman inside the top 20 but Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq figure inside the top 40 and will be eyeing upward movement.
It's a shtty situation to be in... win comfortably or lose points EVEN if you win..
india faces the same in tests when it goes to WI.. we are so much further ahead in points.. if its anything less than a whitewash we will lose quite a few points..
meanwhile both pak and india tours are a great chance for WI to gain some ranking points..
