West Indies aims to gain valuable points in tri-series against Australia and South Africa

West Indies leads Pakistan by just one point on the ODI team rankings, but trails Australia by 36 points and South Africa by 24 points. As such, because the rankings are weighted to reflect this difference, every West Indies win over Australia or South Africa will earn it valuable points.

If Australia remains unbeaten in the series, then it will collect five points and move to 129 points, while South Africa will gain six points and rise to 118 points if it makes a clean sweep of the series. However, West Indies will vault from 88 points to 106 points (a gain of 18 points) if it wins all its seven matches.

Even if the West Indies wins one match each against Australia and South Africa, then it will move from 88 points to 91 points, thus opening up a four-point advantage over Pakistan.

With England and the next seven highest-ranked sides on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings on 30 September 2017 to qualify directly for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, any points earned by the sides in the lead up to the cut-off date will be critical in determining which sides progress automatically for the ICC’s pinnacle 50-over tournament and which sides battle out for the two remaining positions by featuring in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.

While the series in the Caribbean will be in full swing, Zimbabwe will host India for three ODIs in Harare on 11, 13 and 15 June, and Sri Lanka will travel to Ireland for two ODIs to be played on 16 and 18 June.

If India wins all the matches against 11th-ranked Zimbabwe, then it will gain one point and move to 110. However, if India wins the series 2-1, then MS Dhoni’s side will slip to 108 points and Zimbabwe will move from 47 to 48 points.

If fifth-ranked Sri Lanka wins both the matches against Ireland, then it will gain one point and move to 105. However, if the series ends in 1-all, then Sri Lanka will finish on 103 points whereas Ireland will jump from 42 points to 49 points.

The ODI predictor function is available here. Unlike the Test table, the ODI and T20I team rankings are updated after each match.

Meanwhile, South Africa captain AB de Villiers and Sunil Narine of the West Indies will start the ODI season as the number-one batsman and bowler, respectively.

De Villiers leads India’s Virat Kohli, who will miss the Zimbabwe tour, by 75 points, while third-ranked Hashim Amla and fourth-ranked Quinton de Kock are separated by just three points. Just outside the top 10, in 11th position, is Faf du Plessis.

Australia has no batsman inside the top 10 but occupies batting slots from 14-18. Glen Maxwell is his side’s highest-ranked batsman in 14th position, followed by David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith and George Bailey. The five batsmen are separated by just 13 points.

West Indies’ Marlon Samuels is his highest-ranked batsman in 32nd position. He is followed by Lendl Simmons (47th), Darren Bravo (51st) and Johnson Charles (59th).

In the bowlers’ chart, a returning Mitchell Starc is the second highest-ranked bowler to feature in the tri-series after Narine. Starc, who was adjudged the player of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, last played an ODI against England in Manchester in 2015 and will start in fourth place – 49 points behind Narine.

In Imran Tahir and Morne Morkel, South Africa has two bowlers who occupy sixth and eighth positions respectively, and are separated by 19 points. In 14th place is Kagiso Rabada, 60 points behind Morkel.

Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh is the number-one ranked all-rounder, while Australia’s fifth-ranked James Faulkner will aim to make some upward movement.

The ODI player rankings will now be updated on 20 June, after the seventh match in the tri-series.

Forthcoming ODI series:

West Indies, Australia and South Africa

3 June – West Indies v South Africa, Providence

5 June – West Indies v Australia, Providence

7 June – Australia v South Africa, Providence

11 June – Australia v South Africa, Basseterre

13 June – West Indies v Australia, Basseterre

15 June – West Indies v South Africa, Basseterre

19 June – Australia v South Africa, Bridgetown

21 June – West Indies v Australia, Bridgetown

24 June – West Indies v South Africa, Bridgetown

26 June – Final, Bridgetown

India v Zimbabwe

11 June – 1st ODI, Harare

13 June – 2nd ODI, Harare

15 June – 3rd ODI, Harare

Ireland v Sri Lanka

16 June – 1st ODI

18 June – 2nd ODI

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings (Before the start of West Indies-Australia-South Africa tri-series)

Rank   Team              Points

1          Australia         124

2          New Zealand   113

3          South Africa   112

4          India                109

5          Sri Lanka        104

6          England           103

7          Bangladesh     98

8          West Indies     88

9          Pakistan          87

10        Afghanistan    51

11        Zimbabwe       47

12        Ireland             42

(Developed by David Kendix)

MRF TYRES ICC ODI Player Rankings (before the start of West Indies-Australia-South Africa tri-series)

Batsmen (top 20)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Avge      HS Rating

   1         AB de Villiers     SA         900        54.56    902 v NZ at Auckland 2015

   2         Virat Kohli          Ind         825        51.51    886 v Ban at Fatullah 2014

   3         Hashim Amla      SA         766        52.13    901 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2012

   4         Quinton de Kock SA         763        42.94    789 v Eng at Centurion 2016

   5         Rohit Sharma      Ind         761!      42.08    761 v Aus at Sydney 2016

   6         T. Dilshan            SL          760        39.44    802 v Sco at Hobart 2015

   7         Kane Williamson NZ         752        47.00    798 v SA at Centurion 2015

  8         Martin Guptill     NZ         751!      43.25    751 v Aus at Hamilton 2016

   9         Shikhar Dhawan  Ind         748        43.97    794 v SA at Melbourne 2015

  10        Joe Root               Eng        739        44.34    743 v SA at Johannesburg 2016

  11        Faf du Plessis      SA         710        39.78    726 v Eng at Centurion 2016

  12        MS Dhoni            Ind         706        51.25    836 v Aus at Delhi 2009

  13        Ross Taylor         NZ         702        43.90    743 v Zim at Harare 2015

  14        Glenn Maxwell    Aus        686        34.20    735 v Ind at Canberra 2016

  15        David Warner      Aus        685        37.86    692 v NZ at Wellington 2016

  16        Aaron Finch         Aus        684        38.48    743 v Eng at Melbourne 2015

  17        Steve Smith         Aus        675        40.03    709 v Ind at Canberra 2016

  18        George Bailey     Aus        673        41.63    867 v SA at Harare 2014

  19        Jos Buttler           Eng        663        35.25    706 v SA at Port Elizabeth 2016

  20=      Mushfiqur Rahim              Ban        661        31.61    671 v Zim at Mirpur 2015

              Soumya Sarkar    Ban        661*     49.42    671 v SA at Chittagong 2015

Bowlers (top 20)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         Avge      Eco.       HS Rating

   1         Sunil Narine        WI         734       26.05     4.07       791 v SL at Jamaica 2013

   2         Trent Boult          NZ         731*     22.96    4.81      745 v Aus at Auckland 2016

   3         Shakib Al Hasan  Ban        699        27.89    4.30      717 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

   4         Mitchell Starc     Aus        685        19.65    4.85      783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015

   5         Matt Henry          NZ         675*!    22.17    5.42      675 v Aus at Hamilton 2016

   6         Imran Tahir         SA         674        24.11    4.65      735 v SL at Sydney 2015

   7         Dale Steyn           SA         665        25.93    4.86      746 v Ind at Durban 2013

   8         Morne Morkel     SA         655        24.36    4.93      717 v SL at East London 2012

   9         Saeed Ajmal        Pak        636        22.73    4.18      810 v SA at Centurion 2013

  10        Mohammad Irfan Pak        616        31.14    4.91      641 v UAE at Napier 2015

  11        R. Ashwin            Ind         615        31.73    4.85      691 v SL at Hambantota 2012

  12        Moeen Ali           Eng        610*!    37.81    4.91      610 v SA at Cape Town 2016

  13        James Anderson  Eng        606        29.22    4.92      719 v SA at The Oval 2013

  14        Kagiso Rabada    SA         595*!    20.13    4.83      595 v Eng at Cape Town 2016

  15        M. Shami             Ind         589        24.89    5.54      654 v Ban at Melbourne 2015

  16        M. Mortaza          Ban        579        30.76    4.73      653 v Zim at Mirpur 2009

  17        Rangana Herath   SL          576        31.91    4.41      703 v SA at Pallekele 2013

  18        Steven Finn         Eng        575        28.96    5.09      755 v NZ at Auckland 2013

  19        S. Senanayake     SL          571        35.35    4.76      656 v NZ at Christchurch 2015

  20=      B. Kumar             Ind         568        38.30    4.89      657 v WI at Dharamsala 2014

              M. Hafeez            Pak        568        34.86    4.10      769 v Ind at Kolkata 2013

All-rounders (top five)

Rank     Player                  Team     Pts         HS Rating

   1         Shakib Al Hasan  Ban        416       453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

   2         M. Hafeez            Pak        363       438 v Ind at Kolkata 2013

   3         T. Dilshan            SL          349       415 v Sco at Hobart 2015

   4         Angelo Mathews SL          335       427 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 2014

   5         James Faulkner   Aus        323*/    361 v NZ at Melbourne 2015

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after a minimum of 40 started innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating after he has conceded 1,500 runs.

!indicates career-highest rating