India must win ODI series 3-0 against Zimbabwe to retain 2nd position in ICC ranking

India begins their ODI series against Zimbabwe on Friday 10 July and they must win all the series 3-0 in order to remain at the No 2 position in the ICC ODI ranking. All the ODIs and T20 matches would be played at Harare. This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 8 July 2015.

India has a new captain in Ajinkya Rahane for the series with some new players it would be up to him to ensure that India maintains its position in world ranking.
India is now the No 2 with a total of 115 points while Zimbabwe, the hosts, are at No 11 with 44 points. India is obviously the favorites but, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and no one can forecast the result until the last ball is bowled.
A 2-1 win for India means they will drop two points but still maintain their second spot. However, a 1-2 loss will mean India will have to surrender four points and go down to fourth.
Against this, a 3-0 win for Zimbabwe will help them jump to 52 points. Thereby, they will be able to overtake Ireland and move to the 10th spot, while India will slip down to the fifth spot with 109.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Indian team gets a break before 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup takes off

#2015iccworldcup #carltonmidtriseries India take on arch rivals Pakistan in the opening game of the 2015 ICC Cricket World cup in Adelaide on 15 February 2015 and, given their miserable showing in the Carlton Mid tri series, BCCI has agreed to give them a break. This has been reported in sports.ndtv.com dated 1 February 2015.
The intention is to allow the players to regroup themselves and make an effort to put the bad show behind and rise as one to defend the title.
When India won the last time around in 2011, the venue was India – this time it is in Australia. They have been in Australia for quite some time and should have got acclimatized by now, hopefully.
Moreover, in 2011, India had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Shewag – but, alas, this time, those names are absent and India would have to rely on a whole bunch of newbies. Newbies in the context of the World Cup even though most of them are exciting players. The worry is their performances have lacked consistency. They have been flashes in the pan and, at the world cup level, what is necessary is determination and consistency.
Captain M S Dhoni has an unenviable task ahead of him – he has to extract the best from his players and, the whole country would wait with bated breath to see how best he can make use of the resources at his disposal.
As per information – the team has been booked into a resort near Adelaide where they would have the option to switch off their mobile phones and relax and recover comfortably. It seems Sourav Ganguli had suggested that the players need to send some time with their families. Accordingly, permission was granted to a few players who wanted to go to Melbourne or Sydney to meet their relatives.
India is in Group B with Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the UAE.