Pakistan gets opportunity to improve ICC ODI Ranking: Pakistan, Sri Lanka ODI series begins

Pakistan has a chance to improve its ranking in the ICC One-Day Internationals (ODIs) Championship when it goes head-to-head with World Cup finalist Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series explode into action at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on Friday.
Second-ranked Sri Lanka is presently sitting on 119 ratings points, just one ahead of world champion India, while sixth-ranked Pakistan trails fifth-ranked England by five ratings points. However, all this will change depending how the series between the Asian rivals pans out.
If Pakistan wins the series 4-1, it will move ahead of England to fifth position on 108 ratings points - its best ranking since May 2009 while Sri Lanka will drop to fourth position on 112 ratings points. A 5-0 victory will earn Pakistan nine ratings points which, in turn, will put it on 110 ratings points and fourth position on the championship table - its best since November 2008 while Sri Lanka would slip to sixth position on 109 ratings points.
In a sharp contrast, a 5-0 win for Sri Lanka will lift it to 123 ratings points seven behind number-one ranked Australia while a 4-1 win will earn it two rankings points. These are the only two scenarios where there will be no changes to the championship table as even a 3-2 win for Sri Lanka will mean it will slip down the ladder.
A 3-2 series win will put Sri Lanka alongside India on 118 ratings points but when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point, India will be ranked second while Sri Lanka will be in third position. In the ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is the highest-ranked batsman from either side in seventh position. If the former Sri Lanka captain manages to display the same form he showed in the Test series, which helped him share the player of the series award with Saeed Ajmal, then he has a very good chance of moving as high as fifth.
Other batsmen aiming for upward movements are Tillekeratne Dilshan (11th), Mahela Jayawardena (15th), Umar Akmal (17th), Angelo Mathews (35th), Muhammad Hafeez (38th), Younis Khan (41st), Upul Tharanga (43rd) and Shahid Afridi (48th). In the ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, Pakistan boasts four bowlers inside the top 30 with Saeed Ajmal in sixth spot, Shahid Afridi in 18th position, Umar Gul ranked 25th and Mohammad Hafeez in 29th place. For Sri Lanka, Lasith Malinga is the highest-ranked bowler in eighth position, 19 points behind Saeed Ajmal, while Suraj Randiv is 42nd. In the Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders, fourth-ranked Hafeez and fifth-ranked Shahid Afridi have a good opportunity to gain one place each by moving ahead of third-ranked Jacques Kallis of South Africa.