The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) announced the UAE National Cricket Team’s T20I squad for the upcoming home Tri-series on Wednesday, August 27.
Muhammad Waseem will captain the 15-member squad as they take on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the series.
This T20I series is designed to give UAE, Pakistan and Afghanistan a chance to fine tune before the Asia Cup 2025.
The Asia Cup will be played in the T20 format from September 9 to 28 in UAE and will feature 8 teams: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, UAE, Oman and Hong Kong.
UAE and Pakistan are in Group A while Afghanistan is in Group B. The Tri-series starts on August 29 with Afghanistan vs Pakistan. UAE will play Pakistan on August 30.
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After that Afghanistan will play UAE on September 1 and then Pakistan on September 2. Pakistan will play UAE on September 4 and the series will conclude with Afghanistan vs UAE on September 5.
The Tri-series final is on September 7 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium which will host all the matches.
The squad led by Muhammad Waseem includes 4 new faces: Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad Jawadullah. They replace Akif Raja, Matiullah Khan and Zuhaib Zubair from the previous team.
Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad Jawadullah have all played international cricket for UAE before while Harshit Kaushik is waiting to make his debut.
Siddique (59 ODIs and 71 T20Is) and Jawadullah (12 ODIs and 33 T20Is) have a lot of experience and will want to perform well against Afghanistan and Pakistan. Farooq, a leg-spinning all-rounder, has played 8 T20Is and 2 ODIs for his country.
Most of the other players in the UAE squad are familiar faces who have been part of the team for a while.With Lalchand Rajput as head coach and Muhammad Waseem as captain, UAE will look to play well in the series and build some momentum before the Asia Cup 2025.
Squad: Muhammad Waseem (Captain), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma (Wicket-keeper), Asif Khan, Dhruv Parashar, Ethan D’ Souza, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Zohaib, Rahul Chopra (Wicket-keeper), Rohid Khan and Saghir Khan.
