The West Indies and Sri Lanka will have to play an additional qualifying round to make the Super 12s in next year’s ICC Men’s Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup in Australia, while Bangladesh and Afghanistan are assured of direct entry.
The automatic qualifiers for the Super 12s in 2022 were determined to be the winner and runner-up of the ongoing Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup, alongside the next six highest-ranked teams. Going into last Saturday’s games, six teams, England, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia had already done enough to ensure that their ICC Twenty/20 International rankings were high enough to seal a Super 12s spot next year.
The West Indies’ eight-wicket defeat to Australia last Saturday, however, meant that they slipped to 10th in the rankings, while Sri Lanka dropped to ninth. Benefitting at the expense of the two teams is Bangladesh, who rose to eighth. They lost all their matches in the Super 12s, but had recent home-series wins over Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan, who are currently seventh on the table, will occupy the other automatic spot in the Super 12s.
West Indies, who are two-time champions at the ICC Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup, lost four of their five matches this year, and had a notable low score coming in their opening match against England when they were dismissed for 55.
Sri Lanka performed marginally better, registering victories over both Bangladesh and the West Indies, but defeats to England, South Africa and Australia meant that they were denied a place in the semis.
Joining West Indies and Sri Lanka in the first round of the 2022 ICC Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup will be Scotland and Namibia. They advanced out of the first round and into the Super 12s during the ongoing edition and four qualifiers.
