India officially qualified for the 2021 ICC Women’s ODI World Cup after the governing body confirmed sharing of points in various series affected by coronavirus pandemic.
The outbreak has led to the cancellation of as many as three series in the ICC Women’s Championship calendar, which is used to determine the automatic qualifiers of the tournament. As far as India is concerned, the bilateral tournament against Pakistan has not been possible due to diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
India were fourth in the points table before the start of the T20 World Cup, where Harmanpreet Kaur and Co finished runners-up. Australia are comfortably at the top, followed by England and South Africa. Due to the frosty relationship between the two countries, India and Pakistan will not be facing each other in the Championship. While in the previous cycle, this resulted in a forfeiture by India, this time around the points have been shared.
Here is ICC’s full statement:
With respect to the India v Pakistan series, the TC concluded that the series could not be played because of a Force Majeure event after the BCCI demonstrated that it was unable to obtain the necessary government clearances to allow India to participate in the bilateral series against Pakistan, which forms a part of the ICC Women’s Championship.
Meanwhile, two other ICC Women’s Championship series have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. South Africa were to host Australia and Sri Lanka were to host New Zealand in the last round of matches.
The India-Pakistan series was originally scheduled in the sixth round of the competition, between July and November 2019, but despite the best efforts of both the boards, it was unable to take place.
Mithali Raj’s India were beaten finallists in the 2017 edition and it is likely to be the veteran, and pacer Jhulan Goswami’s last international series, both having retired from T20I cricket.
Apart from hosts New Zealand, the teams that have now qualified for the tournament are Australia, England, South Africa and India.
ICC women's championship table
| Pos | Team | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Net RR | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 18 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.835 | 37 |
| 2 | England | 21 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1.267 | 29 |
| 3 | South Africa | 18 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 1 | -03.09 | 25 |
| 4 | India | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0.465 | 23 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 18 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 1 | -0.46 | 19 |
| 6 | New Zealand | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | -0.206 | 17 |
| 7 | West Indies | 21 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 1 | -1.033 | 13 |
| 8 | Sri Lanka | 18 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 0 | -1.611 | 5 |
The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier is scheduled to be played from 3-19 July in Sri Lanka, this is subject to review due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 10 teams vying for the three remaining places in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 will be the hosts, Sri Lanka, along with Pakistan and West Indies from the ICC Women’s Championship, the two other teams with ODI status, Bangladesh and Ireland, and the winners of the five regional qualifiers - Thailand (Asia), Zimbabwe (Africa), Papua New Guinea (East Asia Pacific), United States of America (Americas) and Netherlands (Europe).
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