The T20 World Cup is all set to take centerstage with just a few days left for the tournament’s qualifiers which will witness a couple of matches in the group stage. UAE will be one of the teams who will be in the action on October 16 as they will open their campaign against the Netherlands. It will be the second time when UAE will be competing in the T20 World Cup event. They are enjoying a decent run in recent times as the win over Ireland helped them qualify for the group stage for the T20 WC.
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They also performed well in Asia Cup 2022 qualifiers but things didn’t turn out well for them in the final where Hong Kong edged past them to earn a place in the competition.
UAE are placed in Group A alongside Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Namibia and their primary aim will be to finish in the top 2 to get a place in the Super 12 for the first time.
They will not enter the tournaments as any underdogs as their journey in the group stage is bound to impact their future. The UAE Cricket Association has taken some major decisions in recent times as they are also coming with a domestic T20 league which will start from next year.
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How they fared last time?
Interestingly, the UAE failed to make it to the T20 World Cup last year. It was a long way back in 2014 when UAE qualified for the group stage of the T20 WC for the last time which was also their first too. The minnows were placed against bit more experienced sides like Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Ireland. It turned out to be a disaster for them as they failed to win any match and finished at the bottom in their group.
Players to watch out for
Muhammad Waseem: The right-handed batter is going to be the key for UAE to earn their maiden win in the T20 World Cup history. He played a pivotal role in their qualification for the mega ICC event with 241 runs in 5 matches in the qualification round. He also displayed his batting prowess in the Asia Cup qualifiers. The 28-year-old has so far scored 650 runs in 17 T20Is at a sublime strike rate of 152.58.
Junaid Siddique: The conditions in Australia is expected to offer pace and bounce as that’s where Siddique will play a crucial role for the UAE in the tournament. He is the leader of the bowling attack despite playing just 25 T20Is in which he claimed 29 scalps.
Strongest Playing XI
Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Vriitya Aravind (wk), Chundangapoyil Rizwan (c), Aryan Lakra, Basil Hameed, Zawar Farid, Sultan Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Kashif Daud, Junaid Siddique
Full Squad
United Arab Emirates: C P Rizwan (c), Vriitya Aravind, Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem, Basil Hameed, Aryan Lakra, Zawar Farid, Kashif Daud, Karthik Meiyappan, Ahmed Raza, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Sabir Ali, Alishan Sharafu, Aayan Khan. Standby Players: Sultan Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Vishnu Sukumaran, Adithya Shetty, Sanchit Sharma.
UAE Fixtures in Group Stage
Netherlands v UAE, October 16 – Geelong (19h00 local time)
Sri Lanka v UAE, October 18 – Geelong (19h00 local time)
Namibia v UAE, October 20 – Geelong (19h00 local time)
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