India-South Africa series won’t be a part of the ODI Super League

The ongoing bilateral series between India and South Africa that kicked off at Paarl, will not be included in the ODI Super League which paves the path for the ICC World Cup 2023. According to the apex cricketing body, only the pre-decided series will be an addition to the list of the ODI Super League.

The ICC quotes, “If teams play three series, all do not count towards that. In some cases, they may play four or five matches in a series, but only three pre-decided matches will count for the Super League points.” In the FTP ending 2023, many teams will be part of several bilateral series which in turn will not be a part of the ODI Super League.

India will be up against West Indies next and that series is included in the ODI Super League. However, India’s imminent series against England will once again not be a part of the ODI Super League as their engagement in the elite qualification encounters has already been completed in March last year.

Going by the communique of ICC, the format goes something like, “Each team plays three ODIs against eight other teams. Four of these are home series and four are away series. This means each team plays a total of 24 ODIs." For every win that is recorded by a team, ten points are added while a tie/no result/abandoned game results in the awarding of 5 points to each team.

India has already been a part of 9 Super League fixtures out of which they have secured 49 points. They have already featured against the likes of Australia, Sri Lanka and England. As per the pre-decided schedule, the called off series between India and South Africa was a part of the ODI League and has been rescheduled for the next year.

India’s upcoming Super ODI fixtures are against Afghanistan (home), Zimbabwe (away) and New Zealand (away). The Super League points and position won’t matter to India as they automatically qualify for the tournament being the host nation. However, the results of India will bear an emphatic importance to the other teams.

Apart from India, 13 other teams will be qualifying for the World Cup directly. The ICC quotes, “The bottom five teams will play a qualifying tournament, which will also feature the best teams from the lower rungs of competition.”