Bangladesh must not drop rankings

The Tigers have to overcome their past debacles in the ICC T20 World Cup and must not drop ranking points to avoid the first round and earn a sport straight into the super 12 round in the next edition.

ICC has announced the schedule for next year’s T20 World Cup, slated to take place in Australia from October 16 to November 13, 2022.

On the eve of this year’s edition, which was deferred from 2020 due to the pandemic, ICC announced the schedule and the qualification process for the event in 2022.

The 2021 T20 World Cup will play a big role in the qualification process of next year’s edition as the 12 teams that play in the super 12 stage of the 2021 T20 World Cup will automatically qualify for Australia 2022.

But from the 12 automatic qualifiers, the winner and runner up of the 2021 edition plus the next six highest ranked teams (as of November 15, 2021) will go straight through to the Super 12 stage of Australia 2022.

Bangladesh are currently at the sixth position of the ICC T20 rankings, and to avoid playing the first round for the fourth time straight, the Tigers must not drop ranking points.

Bangladesh have a poor record in the T20 World Cups as they managed to win only five matches out of 25, and repeating the history might push them out of the direct qualification for super 12 in the next edition.

To stay afloat in the qualification zone, Bangladesh must not lose to under-ranked teams like Scotland, Oman and Papua New Guinea in the first round of the upcoming edition in UAE and Oman.

Moreover, they must secure wins over higher-ranked teams to earn rating points. At present, Australia (7th) and West Indies (9th) are behind Bangladesh in the rankings, but both have a fairly good track record in the T20 World Cup.

West Indies are the defending champions and two-time winners, while Australia are the runners-up of 2010 and played in the semi-finals two more times.

Sri Lanka (10th) is also out of the top six spots of the T20 ranking, Bangladesh suffered a defeat to them in the preparation match.