India Women’s national cricket team has secured their place for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to distribute the equal points for the series cancellations. While the India-Pakistan ODI bilateral series was cancelled too due to the rising political tensions between the two countries, both teams shared three points each. After this decision, India Women finished in the fourth position in the 2017–20 ICC Women’s Championship points table and secured the last direct spot for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021.
On last Wednesday (15th April), the ICC Women’s Championship Technical Committee (TC) has come out with the decision to distribute the points with the equal share for the series cancellations of the Championship. The India-Pakistan series was cancelled due to a force majeure event as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) didn’t get the permission from the Indian government to play the bilateral series against Pakistan Women.
Also, due to the coronavirus outbreak, Australia Women’s tour of South Africa and New Zealand Women’s tour of Sri Lanka were cancelled. All these cancelled series have now been solved with the equal points distribution.
India Women earned 23 points at the end of the 2017–20 ICC Women’s Championship
At the end of the 2017–20 ICC Women’s Championship, Australia Women finished on top of the points table with 37 points as they lost only one game. England Women, who will feature in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 as the defending champions, finished in the second position after earning 29 points.
South Africa Women and India Women finished in the third and fourth positions in the points table with 25 and 23 points respectively. In the last ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (2017), India Women finished as the runners-up after losing the final against the hosts England Women by just nine runs.
Despite finishing in the sixth position in the Championship points table, New Zealand Women (17 points) still directly qualified for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 due to having the hosting rights of the upcoming Women’s CWC.
The other three teams in the Championship, Pakistan Women (19 points), West Indies Women (13 points) and Sri Lanka Women (5 points) will now have to play the 2020 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
Final points table of the 2017–20 ICC Women’s Championship
| Rank | Team |
Match Details |
Net Run Rate | Points | ||||
| Match | Won | Lost | Tied | No Result | ||||
| 1 | Australia Women (Q) | 21 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1.835 | 37 |
| 2 | England Women (Q) | 21 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1.267 | 29 |
| 3 | South Africa Women (Q) | 21 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 4 | -0.309 | 25 |
| 4 | India Women (Q) | 21 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0.465 | 23 |
| 5 | Pakistan Women | 21 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 4 | -0.460 | 19 |
| 6 | New Zealand Women (Q) | 21 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 3 | -0.206 | 17 |
| 7 | West Indies Women | 21 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 1 | -1.033 | 13 |
| 8 | Sri Lanka Women | 21 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 3 | -1.611 | 5 |
New Zealand will host the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 from 6th February to 7th March 2021. A total of eight teams will participate in this global event. While the five teams have directly qualified for the upcoming Women’s CWC, the other three teams will be the top three final teams in the 2020 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
According to the schedule, Sri Lanka will host the 2020 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier between 3rd and 19th July 2020. But it is likely to be rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.