Pakistan will have a tough task when it goes head to head with the West Indies in a five-ODI series starting 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 back.
Sixth-place Pakistan starts the series with a difference of 35 rating points relative to eighth-placed West Indies in the ICC ODI Championship table, said an ICC statement issued on Thursday. This gap means it is expected to win the series convincingly. As such, because the rankings are weighed to reflect this difference, failure to win comfortably will mean Pakistan will drop points.
In fact, the only way for Pakistan not to drop points is 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 rating 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 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 absence of Chris Gayle, 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.
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