Sri Lanka will begin a make or break World Cup qualifying round in Zimbabwe next month having to overcome teams like Ireland, Scotland, Oman and the UAE in the first phase before moving on to confront teams like West Indies, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands in the second round.
Sri Lanka failed to qualify directly for the October-November World Cup in India and will now have to battle in the qualifying round in which only two teams will book passages to India.
The ten-team qualifying round tournament in Zimbabwe has two groups of five and the top three on each side at the end of the first round matches will progress to a Super Six phase.
From there, teams play opponents progressing from the other group, with points accumulated against the other Super Six teams from their original group carried forward.
Group A is arguably the harder of the two groups on paper, with in-form Nepal the fourth seeded team in the five, drawn with the West Indies, Netherlands, USA and the hosts.
Sri Lanka are favourites in Group B, and meet Ireland, a team they did not face in the recently concluded Cricket World Cup Super League. Scotland and Oman enter Group B by virtue of their League 2 top-three finish, with UAE reaching the tournament via the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off in Namibia earlier in the year.
Groups for the World Cup Qualifier
Group A: West Indies, Zimbabwe, Netherlands, Nepal, USA
Group B: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scotland, Oman, UAE