Zimbabwe eyes return to top ten in LG ICC ODI Championship

West Indies look to keep pressure on top teams with wins in Harare and Bulawayo

Zimbabwe can move back into the top ten of the LG ICC ODI Championship if it manages to beat the West Indies 4-1 in its upcoming home series, which gets underway in Harare on Friday.

Currently occupying 11th place in the table, Prosper Utseya’s team is 11 points behind Ireland but all that can change with a great showing against the touring West Indies. A clean sweep of the series would give Zimbabwe a total of 35 ratings points, leaving it seven above the Irish and with ninth-placed Bangladesh in its sights.

But the men from the Caribbean have their own targets to achieve and they will be in no mood to roll over. Currently placed in eighth, the West Indies’ players will be anxious to show the world they are better than that, having won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 and having made it to the final of the same event in 2006.

A 5-0 series victory for the West Indies will earn it two ratings points and so reduce the gap between it and seventh-placed England to just three.

The five-ODI series will mark the start of a three-month tour for the West Indies that includes three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 International against South Africa as well as the one-day matches in Harare and Bulawayo.

The LG ICC ODI Championship is a tightly packed table with just ten points separating New Zealand in third position and the West Indies in eighth. Australia remains the top side in the world but South Africa is closing in, now lying just four points behind in second.

A packed schedule over the New Year period could see the lead change hands for the first since April.