Asia Cup: Minnows UAE seek a chance to punch above their weight at home

The UAE team, which has made the cut for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025 as hosts, will try to punch above their weight when they open against mighty India on 10 October at the Dubai International Stadium. Muhammad Waseem, a key batter, will lead the squad, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) has announced in naming its 17-member squad on 4 September, Thursday.

The strongly built Waseem, an expat from Pakistan, made headlines earlier this week when he broke Rohit Sharma’s record for the most sixes as a captain in the T20Is (yes, you have heard it right). Playing Afghanistan in an ongoing tri-series in Sharjah, he lofted off-spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman for two sixes in the third over of the UAE innings to move to 106 maximums.

The Hitman, who scored 105 sixes in 35 matches and has now retired from the shortest format, is now second on the list above Eoin Morgan, who struck 86 sixes in 34 matches.

The Emirati squad for the Asia Cup is the same as the one featuring in the tri-series, which also includes Pakistan — but with the addition of pacer Matiullah Khan and left-arm orthodox spinner Simranjeet Singh.

While the UAE have lost both the matches in the tri-series so far, some of their players are in good form. Asif Khan scored a fluent 77 in the first match, while Waseem and wicketkeeper–batter Rahul Chopra scored 50s in the second one.  

While the associate member nation has left a huge footprint as host for several mega events — from the T20 World Cup for both men and women, to the ICC Champions Trophy, the IPL and PSL (not to speak of its playing ‘home’ to Pakistan for a decade) — the cricketing community there felt it did not necessarily raise the standard of the sport there.

Now, the continental event — to be held in the T20 format this year, with an eye to the World T20 in 2026 — should provide them the perfect platform to try and catch their heavyweight rivals on the wrong foot.   

The UAE had, of course, made the cut in two editions of the ODI World Cup, in 1996 and 2015, and a number of T20 World Cups, including the one Down Under in 2022. The last time they participated in the Asia Cup was nearly a decade back, however, in 2016, when the tournament was hosted by Bangladesh.   

The latest edition of the Continental tournament has eight sides divided into two groups of four. The top two teams from each group will then feature in the Super Four stage before the two best sides fight it out for the title in the final. Group A is comprised of India, Pakistan, Oman and the UAE, while Group B has Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

Squad

• Muhammad Waseem (captain)

• Alishan Sharafu

• Aryansh Sharma

• Asif Khan

• Dhruv Parashar

• Ethan D'Souza

• Haider Ali

• Harshit Kaushik

• Junaid Siddique

• Matiullah Khan

• Muhammad Farooq

• Muhammad Jawadullah

• Muhammad Zohaib

• Rahul Chopra

• Rohid Khan

• Simranjeet Singh

• Saghir Khan