2019 ICC World Cup teams confirmed

With just over a year to go for the 2019 World Cup, the ten teams that will be taking part in the tournament have been confirmed during the ongoing ICC World Cup qualifiers.

It was already confirmed that the hosts, England, along with the top seven teams in the ICC ODI rankings as of 30 September 2017 earned direct qualification and the remaining two spots were decided by the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

Along with England, India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh got a direct entry while West Indies and Afghanistan qualified through the World Cup qualifier.

West Indies qualified for the World Cup by beating Scotland in the last round of super-six games while Afghanistan should consider themselves lucky to sneak into the tournament after losing their first three games of the qualifiers. The Rashid Khan-led side got their World Cup ticket by beating Ireland in the final super-six game, which was a virtual knockout.

These ten teams play each other and the top four will qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup that gets underway on May 30 in 2019.

The format for the tournament will be a single group of ten teams, with each team playing the other nine teams, and the top four teams progressing to a knockout stage of semi-finals and a final. The ten team tournament has gained criticism due to the lack of Associate teams in the tournament.

Given the increase of the Test playing nations from 10 to 12, with the admission of Ireland and Afghanistan in June 2017, it will be the first World Cup to be contested without all of the Test playing nations being present and this will also be the first World cup to feature no Associate members.