Dubai: The International Cricket Council’s decision to include the UAE. Nepal, Netherlands and Scotland in their One Day International (ODI) rankings list apart from the 12 existing countries will inspire UAE cricketers to give their best and climb up the individual ranking list for batsmen and bowlers.
Through a release, ICC announced on Friday that results of all the bilateral ODIs involving these new teams will henceforth be taken into account while calculating the rating points.
Among the UAE batsmen, Rameez Shahzad, who displayed tremendous form in recent ODI matches, is ranked 68th in the rank for batsmen headed by Indian captain Virat Kohli. Shahzad is followed by Shaiman Anwar ranked at 76. Among UAE bowlers spinner Ahmad Raza is ranked 68th closely followed by Mohammad Naveed at 72.
The UAE, Scotland and Nepal earned ODI status by finishing as the three leading associates (along with the Dutch) in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018. The Netherlands secured ODI status and a place in the 13-team ODI league by winning the ICC World Cricket League Championship last year. Scotland is ranked 13th on 28 points, 10 points behind 12th ranked Ireland while the UAE are another 10 points behind on 18 in 14th position. The Netherlands have 13 rating points. Nepal and the Netherlands will need to play four matches more in order to get into the table.
The table is headed by England while India are ranked second, three points behind England. The initial rankings for the four new teams are based on all ODIs played since May 2015 by Scotland and the UAE against Full Members and against each other.
