PHOTO: AFP
The loss was registered in Azhar Ali’s maiden tour as ODI captain with a team which was without seniors Misbahul Haq and Shahid Afridi, who both retired after the World Cup 2015, while Younus Khan was rested.
In addition, the team was also plagued by injuries to Muhammad Irfan, Sohail Khan, Sohaib Maqsood and Yasir Shah.
Apart from these mishaps, the new selection committee led by Haroon Rasheed listened to the advice to head coach Waqar Younis and excluded Ahmed Shehzad from both the ODI and Test squads due to behavioural issues.
Pakistan now need to come back inside the top eight before September 30, 2015 or else they will fail to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy.
The men in green still have at least eight ODIs to play in hopes of saving themselves from the humiliation. They will play three one-dayers at home against Zimbabwe as a seven-year suspension of international cricket in the country is about to end, while they will play five ODIs on a long tour of Sri Lanka in the following assignment.
Apart from that, Zimbabwe want to host Pakistan in August and they might play few one-dayers there as well.
World champions Australia lead the table with a rating of 129, followed by India on 117. The losing finalists at the World Cup, New Zealand, are in third position (116) while South Africa (112), Sri Lanka (106) and England (94) are fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
West Indies are in the seventh place with rating of 88 while Bangladesh joins them at eighth with the same rating. Pakistan (87) are one rating behind at ninth while associate team Ireland is at 10th with rating of 50.
Zimbabwe are in 11th place with a rating of 45, followed by Afghanistan on 41.
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