What an irony of fate. Sri Lanka who defeated Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup Super12 match and also won against West Indies have to still go through a qualifying round to make it to the Super 12s of next year’s Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia whereas Bangladesh who lost all their five matches of the current tournament in the UAE have gained automatic qualification along with Afghanistan.

West Indies and Sri Lanka are the two teams who have to go through the qualifiers along with Scotland and Namibia – two teams who advanced out of the first round and into the Super 12s during the ongoing edition.

The automatic qualifiers for the Super 12s in 2022 were determined to be the winner and runner-up of the ongoing T20 World Cup, alongside the next six highest-ranked teams. Going into Saturday's games, six teams – England, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia – had already done enough to ensure their ICC T20I rankings were high enough to seal a Super 12s spot next year.

West Indies' eight-wicket defeat to Australia on Saturday, however, meant that they slipped to 10th in the rankings, while Sri Lanka dropped to ninth. Benefitting at the two teams' expense is Bangladesh, who rose to eighth despite losing all their matches in the Super 12s, on the back of recent home-series wins over Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan, who are currently seventh on the table, will occupy the other automatic spot in the Super 12s.

Despite their excellent showing during the ongoing T20 World Cup, with victories over Bangladesh and West Indies, Sri Lanka have done only marginally better in the rankings which does not guarantee them automatic qualification.

West Indies with only one win from five matches finished below Sri Lanka in the Group A standings.  (ST)

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