Pakistan cricket captain Azhar Ali Thursday urged his team to pick up their game after they slumped to ninth in the one-day international rankings, equaling their worst ever. The latest International Cricket Council (ICC) ranking is “worrying”, Ali told AFP — and Pakistan‘s prospects for improving appear bleak as they face “challenging” top teams in coming weeks. If they cannot pull out of the slump by next year to break into the top eight, they face having to play a qualifying round for the 2019 World Cup for the first time ever. Pakistan was briefly ranked ninth after losing to 3-0 to Bangladesh in April last year, but managed to reach eighth before being knocked back once more in the ICC’s annual international rankings released Wednesday. Ali was optimistic his team could rise again.