2023 World Cup Qualifiers: Here is the statistical preview
The 2023 ICC World Cup Qualifiers will start from June 18 in Zimbabwe. As many as 10 tens will fight for the two berths available in the 2023 ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in India in the October-November slot. West Indies will face the USA and hosts Zimbabwe will take on Nepal on the opening day. Here is the statistical preview.
Here are the 10 teams
Zimbabwe will host the event and they are one of the teams apart from former World Cup winners in West Indies and Sri Lanka. All of them along with the Netherlands and Ireland have finished in the bottom five of the ICC World Cup Super League. The USA, UAE, Nepal, Oman, and Scotland are the other five teams taking part in this event.
A look at the history of the event
The Qualifiers have gone through several changes over the years. From 1979 to 2001, all associate nations were eligible to play in the ICC Trophy. Later in 2005, regional qualification was introduced. Until 2015, automatic qualification was granted to full members of the ICC. Since 2019, only the top eight teams have been getting automatic qualification.
Zimbabwe have won the Qualifiers three times
Zimbabwe have won the tournament the most number of times (3). They won three consecutive titles between 1982 and 1990. Scotland is the only other team with multiple qualifier titles (2). Afghanistan won the 2018 edition of the Qualifiers, beating West Indies.
Who has scored the most runs?
UAE's Khurram Khan has scored the most runs in this tournament. He amassed 1,369 runs from 33 innings. Kenyans Maurice Odumbe and Steve Tikolo were placed second and third in the tally, having scored 1,173 and 1,048 runs respectively. Dutch batter Nolan Clark (1,040) and Ireland's Ed Joyce (916) completed the top five highest run-scorers in the tournament.
Roland Lefebvre leads the wickets tally
Former Dutch captain Roland Lefebvre holds the record for most wickets in the tournament. He has scalped 71 wickets in 43 matches. Whereas Ole Mortensen of Denmark has snapped 63 dismissals in 26 matches. Scotland's John Blain is the last of the bowlers with 50 wickets. Kenya's Aasif Karim is fourth with 48 wickets, whereas Anthony Edwards is placed fifth (44).
Here are the batters to watch out for
UAE's Asif Khan finished with the most runs (296) in the World Cup Qualifiers playoffs. He averaged 59.20 in the five games which included a century and two fifties. Vriitya Aravind has slammed the most runs in ODI cricket since 2022. He has amassed 1,416 runs in 41 matches at 37.26. USA's Aaron Jones has scored 900 runs at 40.90 in this period.
A look at the key bowlers
Sandeep Lamichhane has scalped the most wickets (63) in ODIs since 2022. While Zahoor Khan has snapped 54 wickets in this period. Ali Khan finished with the most wickets (16) in the Qualifiers playoffs. He bowled at an average of 12.37. Akeal Hosein and Alzarri Joseph have scalped 35 and 33 wickets respectively since 2022. Dushmantha Chameera has scalped 50 wickets in 44 ODIs.
Here are the upcoming milestones from the Qualifiers
Joseph (93) needs seven wickets to complete 100 ODI scalps. Shai Hope requires 12 runs to get to 4,500 ODI runs. He will be the 11th West Indian batter. Rohan Mustafa needs 80 runs to complete 1,500 runs. Wanindu Hasaranga is five scalps away from 50 ODI wickets. Dhananjaya de Silva requires 14 runs and 10 wickets to complete 1,500 runs and 50 wickets.
