Had Bangladesh won all of their recent bilateral ODI series matches against Afghanistan and South Africa, they would have had a chance to surpass Pakistan and take a good lead in the rating points. However, Pakistan did Bangladesh a big favour in terms of boosting their current ODI standings after losing the opening match of a three-match home series against Australia by 88 runs on Tuesday (March 29) at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Let's have a look at the most recent ICC ODI rankings for all teams.

The Latest ICC One-Day International Rankings Scenario

Pakistan suffered a heavy defeat to Australia in the first One-Day International, which had an immediate impact on their ODI standings. They dropped some points as a result of their loss against Australia, and have now plummeted to seventh place in the rankings, just behind Bangladesh. Bangladesh had a chance to go past Pakistan last February if they could have whitewashed Afghanistan. Team Tigers squandered the opportunity by losing the third match to the Afghan national side by 7 wickets. However, Bangladesh boosted their rating points by winning the ODI series against South Africa by 2-1. Therefore, Bangladesh's rankings have improved as a result of Pakistan's loss against Australia.

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Pakistan's national team has a good chance of retaining the number six spot following the ODI series against Australia despite dropping one spot in the ICC One-Day International rankings. Pakistan must win at least one of their three matches against their opponents in order to achieve this goal. Pakistan must lose all three matches against Australia in the upcoming ODI series for Bangladesh to stay in sixth place, which is unlikely.

Australia will stay in third place regardless of the results of the remaining games in the series. However, if Australia whitewash Pakistan, their rating points will improve significantly. They will be just one point behind arch-rivals England, who are now in second place.

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On the other hand, Pakistan will take a four-point lead over Bangladesh if they win the series 2-1 against Australia, and a one-point advantage if they lose the series 2-1. If Pakistan team gets whitewashed by the Australian side in the series, they will remain in seventh place and be two rating points behind Bangladesh.

The most recent top ten ICC One-Day International (ODI) rankings (as of March 29, 2022) 

   Source: https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/mens/team-rankings/odi

Bangladesh’s Remaining ODI Fixtures in 2022

Bangladesh national men's team has four more bilateral ODI series left this year, giving them an opportunity to improve their present position in the ICC ODI rankings. Bangladesh will host Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series in August and India for the same number of matches in December. Besides, Bangladesh will also play three One-Day Internationals against the West Indies in June-July and three against Ireland in October. As per the schedule, Bangladesh have 12 ODI matches left in the year 2022. Bangladesh's ratings and standings will surely improve if the majority of the matches end in their favour.

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Bottom Line

Bangladesh may not hold the number six spot in the ICC ODI rankings after the completion of the Pakistan-Australia ODI series, but they will be neck and neck with Pakistan in the race for sixth place in the limited-overs team rankings. Bangladesh will certainly climb even further in the ICC ODI team rankings if the Tigers continue to perform well, as they did against the Proteas in their most recent bilateral series.