Pakistan‘s series loss to England could make their qualification path for the 2023 World Cup a lot trickier. Here’s a look at their current situation and the path ahead.

Having the series 3-0 Pakistan are currently placed fourth on the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League table, having won four matches and lost five.

The Super League points format, and why it’s important

Thirteen teams are part of the Cricket World Cup Super League – 12 full-member teams (including Pakistan) and Netherlands. Along with hosts India, the top seven teams on the Super League points table will qualify automatically for the 2023 World Cup.

The rest of the five teams will play a qualifying tournament along with other teams from lower rungs, with two more eventually featuring at the World Cup. The top 12 teams will stay in the Super League for the next cycle, while the 13th team will be relegated to League 2.

Each team gets 10 points for a win, five for a tie/no result, and no points for a loss. Each team will play eight different teams across four home and four away series, set to run until March 2023.

Why is Pakistan’s path tricky?

Pakistan are currently fourth, but have won fewer than half of their games so far (four out of nine). Before the England tour, they did win their last three ODI series, but those victories came against less-fancied opponents: South Africa (11th in the table), Zimbabwe (ranked 13th) and Sri Lanka (placed 12th).

According to the ICC Future Tours Programme, Pakistan are slated to face Afghanistan next in September, a team with a 100 per cent record in the tournament so far. Further, they have series against New Zealand and West Indies later this year, and a visit from Australia in February-March. While West Indies have three wins in six games so far, New Zealand have three wins in as many games so far, with the best net run-rate (+2.352) among all teams. Australia are placed third on the table with four wins in six games, and a positive net run-rate of 0.347.

Pakistan are scheduled to not play Bangladesh, India, Ireland and Sri Lanka: while they wouldn’t mind staying away from Bangladesh and India, they might rue missing out on easier opportunities against the other two teams.

With a challenging route ahead, Pakistan would be looking to turn things right before it gets too late. Two teams who contested the 2019 World Cup will miss out on automatic qualification for the 2023 tournament. At this point in time, Sri Lanka are the least likely of the lot not to occupy a top eight spot. Afghanistan, who finished last at the 2019 tournament are unbeaten and have the most favourable fixture list of all the teams involved, so there is a reasonable chance that one of South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh or Pakistan will have to go through the qualifying tournament to be in with a chance of reaching the 2023 tournament.

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