Now that Pakistan is securely ahead of WI in ODI rankings, it may withdraw from the ZIM series or delay it beyond Sep 30 to not risk its place in the ICC Champion’s Trophy.
Interesting exchange on twitter seems to suggest this.
Najam Sethi @najamsethi](https://twitter.com/najamsethi) 1h1 hour ago
Today Pakistan has qualified for entry into Champions Trophy. Will the doom & gloom brigade congratulate Team Pakistan, Selectors & Coaches?
WI cannot come out ahead of PAK by beating Zim only. They need to beat PAK too.
PAK, on the other hand, will be risking their 8th place ranking even if they lose a single match to the lowly rated Zim or if they perform worse than WI.
Pakistan should not have agreed to the tri series. Originally it was Zim only and Pakistan should have stuck to it. I want Pak to qualify because CT is in England and I want to watch Pak here.
Bhai jan. Before start of pak vs sl n pathetic performance in bd . No one was sure of pak beating sl 4.1
hence we were thinking of this tri series as a saviour to us .
WI may have played easily by not committing for trial series before seeing result of pk vs sl. Had pakistan lost 3-2 n wi backs off. All of us wud be whining of foul play by wi.
Be brave n beat both zim n wi n qualify with dignity . If loose then it is not end of this world.
Every thing is fair in Love and War.
ICC and opponents are trying their best to keep Pakistan away from Champion Trophy and by refusing Tri-Nation series we can put salt on the wounds.
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“Our team is looking good now but we need consistent work on it because we should belong to the top four.” — AFP
KARACHI: Former captain Javed Miandad Thursday urged Pakistan to focus on consistency after their one-day series win away to Sri Lanka.
Pakistan thumped the hosts by seven wickets in the fourth one-day international in Colombo on Wednesday to take an unassailable 3-1 lead ahead of the final match in Colombo on Sunday.
The win boosts Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England but Miandad said the team must move on from the mercurial unpredictability of the past.
“Our team is looking good now but we need consistent work on it because we should belong to the top four. Nine-eight in the rankings is not our position and for that consistent work is needed,” said Miandad, one of Pakistan’s greatest ever batsmen.
Miandad warned other teams were improving rapidly and Pakistan must take care not to slip back.
“We have to compete at the top level and with teams like Bangladesh and England showing great improvement we have to lift ourselves so that we can compete with teams like Australia, South Africa and India,” he said.
“Bangladesh has proved their rise by beating teams like Pakistan, India and South Africa so cricket is changing and to be in that race we have to rise consistently and stick to basics which we had not been doing.”
Bangladesh rose to seventh in the ICC rankings after crushing series wins over Pakistan, India and South Africa in home one-day series since April this year.
Another former captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, praised the team’s dynamism, after some unusually athletic fielding helped them to victory over Sri Lanka.
“Pakistan have shown they are a vibrant team and has shown improvement in all three departments and that is a good sign,” he said.
I think Pakistan should go and play (if PCB has already made a commitment to Zimbabwe)
If we are not even confident of beating bottom-ranked teams like Zimbabwe and Windies (esp. after doing so well in Lanka), then we might as well not qualify for CT
Pakistan after taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series against Sri Lanka has now forwarded Zimbabwe with an offer to play a T20 series rather than ODIs, Express News reported on Friday.
According to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, Pakistan has not yet signed an MoU to play the series in August.
Earlier, West Indies was invited to play a tri-series when Pakistan was supposed to visit Zimbabwe for a reciprocal visit in August.
Pakistan currently stand on the eighth position with 90 points while West Indies are ninth on the International Cricket Council’s ODI team rankings.
If West Indies is not called in for a series in Zimbabwe, then Pakistan will have easily qualified for the 2017 Champions Trophy scheduled to be held in England even if they lose the last ODI to Sri Lanka in the ongoing five-match series.
Apparently since Champions League T20 is off, WICB is in consultation with BCCI to play a 3- or 5-match ODI series before the CT qualification deadline of Sep 30
