Which four teams automatically qualify?
It's a brilliant story.
In October 2017, the ICC initially announced that the Hosts + the Top 3 sides from the Women's Championship would automatically qualify, with the other 4 spots being decided by a WC Qualifier Tournament. NZ, being the hosts, automatically got through. The Women's Championship featured 8 teams (Eng, Aus, NZ, SA, Ind, PK, SL, WI), and all 8 teams had to play each other in a 3-match ODI series, meaning 21 games per team with 2 points for each win, and NRR being the tiebreaker. Fantastic concept.
As of October 2018, India Women had lost 7 of their 9 games, and so the rules were conveniently changed to make it so that the hosts + 4 teams from the Womens Championship would qualify for the next stage.
As it stands right now, Australia (1st), England (2nd) and SA (3rd) have secured enough points from the 21 games to make it to the next stage. Australia and SA are actually through to the next stage despite having played just 18 games each - they face each other later this month.
In 4th and 5th place are India (20 points) and Pakistan (16 points), with both teams only left to face each other. This series will decide who makes it through automatically, and who has to play the Qualifier.
However, thanks to BCCI/PCB politics, there is no date or venue fixed yet for this series. As per what I can find out:
Pakistan’s fixture against India couldn’t take place as the PCB didn’t receive the invitation from the BCCI. With the series window already closed, the matter has now been referred to the ICC event secretariat in Dubai
Hope India get forced into the qualifier tournament tbh.