England’s 2027 World Cup qualification in danger, the latest ICC rankings increased difficulties
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has released the ODI format’s team ranking and a bad news has come out for England according to the updated ranking. According to this ranking, the English team is currently at 8th position, due to which their qualification for the 2027 ODI World Cup is in danger. The 2019 World Cup winning English team has currently moved down from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan to eighth position with 84 ratings.
England won only three ODIs out of 14 out of 14 between May 4, 2024 to May 5, 2025, with the ratio of winning/defeat, which is better than only Nepal (0.200) and Bangladesh (0.142). Therefore, the possibilities of their World Cup qualification have suffered a huge setback. 14 teams will participate in the 2027 ODI World Cup, in which Zimbabwe and South Africa have already achieved qualification for the tournament due to being a co-script.
Namibia will not be able to achieve qualification automatically despite being the co-script of the event, as it is limited to the full members of the ICC only. Apart from these, the top eight teams of the ICC ODI rankings will confirm their place in the tournament, which will be decided on the cut-off date of March 31, 2027. Therefore, England in the rankings at this time is just one point above the England, West Indies (83 ratings), which is ninth.
Both these teams will face face to face in the three-match ODI series starting on May 29. If the West Indies team succeeds in defeating England, then it will slip to the ninth place, which will lead to further obstacles in the World Cup. If England missed directly from qualifying through rankings, he will have to participate in the World Cup qualifier for the first time in his history.
In 2023, the West Indies played in the World Cup qualifier, but failed to qualify for the main event for the first time in their history. Therefore, if England do not make major changes in the ODI performance under the leadership of their new captain Harry Brook, then things may be wrong for him.
