The desperate Pakistan cricket team finally overtook the West Indies in the ICC ODI Team Rankings to occupy the eighth position after beating the Caribbean side by 3-0 in the UAE.

It was a completely one-sided series and is the first step towards direct qualification for the 2019 World Cup in England.

It was the second time when Pakistan whitewashed a series of three or more matches in the UAE. They did the same in 2008-09.

Before the series, the West Indies were ranked eighth with 94 points but after the clean sweep Pakistan moved to eighth position with 89 points. The Caribbean team dropped to the ninth place with 88 points.

Bangladesh are seventh. They lost points even after a 2-1 series win over Afghanistan, who are 10th on the table with 52 points. Hosts England and the other seven top-ranked teams on the ICC ODI team rankings on 30 September 2017 will qualify directly for the World Cup.

The last four sides on the ODI team rankings and six teams from the World Cricket League will play in the World Cup Qualifier in 2018. The top two sides from this event will complete the 10-team line-up for the World Cup.

Critics believe the touring West Indian side was their weakest team ever and with this performance it would be difficult for them to reach the World Cup.

Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur remains hungry for successes. He wants Pakistan team to be in the first four in ODI rankings.

Man-of-the-series in the ODI series, Babar Azam scored three consecutive centuries and become the third Pakistani after Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar to do so.

Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara scored four consecutive centuries in ODIs, at the 2015 World Cup.

Before Babar Azam no batsman had made his career’s first three hundreds in consecutive matches. Babar scored record 360 runs in the series at a high average of 120, surpassing South Africa’s wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock’s record of 342 runs in a three-match ODI series against India in 2013-14.

In the 18 matches that he has played he has scored 886 runs, averaging 52.11, including five fifties. If he scores 114 runs in the next two ODIs he can become the quickest player to 1000 runs in ODIs.

Captain Azhar Ali, after failure in the first two ODIs, scored a century in the third and became the only Pakistani to score three hundreds while playing as captain, surpassing Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi who scored two centuries each as captain in 77 and 34 matches, respectively. Azhar has so far captained Pakistan in 28 matches.

For West Indies, Marlon Samuels remained the most successful batsman in the series with 116 runs, averaging 38.66 with one fifty.

On the bowling side, Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz remained the most successful bowler, with seven wickets at an average of just 17.28. Alzarri Joseph took four wickets, averaging 31.

During the third ODI fast bowler Wahab Riaz completed his 100 ODI wickets.

After comprehensive wins in the T20 and ODI series, Pakistan are confident they will thrash West Indies in the Test series, starting from October 13.

Two tough series await Pakistan as the Green-shirts will tour New Zealand in November and Australia in December this year and series win in both countries could place Pakistan on top of the Test ranking again.

Seeing Australia’s and New Zealand’s performances in South Africa and India, respectively, Misbah and company should be optimistic that they can beat them on their soil and prove again that Pakistan is the world leader in Test cricket.