Waseem to lead UAE’s squad as T20 tri-series begins in Sharjah tomorrow

Seasoned opening batter Muhammad Waseem will lead the 15-member UAE men’s team in the upcoming T20I Tri-series 2025 which will be played at the iconic Sharjah Cricket Stadium from Friday. The series features Pakistan and Afghanistan besides the hosts UAE.

UAE will play Pakistan in their opening match of the tournament on Saturday. The tournament will provide the ideal preparation opportunity to the three teams ahead of the eight-team ACC Asia Cup 2025 which will be also played in the UAE.

Fast bowler Junaid Siddique is also amongst the known players to be included in UAE’s squad.

Junaid, 32, has played 59 ODIs and 71 T20Is for the UAE and has picked up 76 and 96 wickets in the two white-ball formats respectively.

Apart from Junaid, who last played a T20I game in December 2024, uncapped all-rounder Harshit Kaushik, leg spin bowling all-rounder Muhammad Farooq and left-arm pacer Muhammad Jawadullah have been included in place of Akif Raja, Matiullah Khan and Zuhaib Zubair.

The rest of the UAE squad looks familiar, thanks to the likes of captain Waseem, Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Rahul Chopra, Muhammad Zohaib and Saghir Khan.

UAE’s rest of the matches in the tri-series come at a quick pace – facing Afghanistan on Sept. 1, before meeting Pakistan again on Sept. 4 and taking again on Afghanistan on Sept. 5.

The three teams will play each other twice in the six-match group stage. The top two teams will then compete in the Sept. 7 final.

Rashid Khan to lead Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s T20I squad, spearheaded by Rashid Khan and bolstered by the return of Ibrahim Zadran and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, is set to take on Pakistan on Friday.

The 17-member squad largely mirrors Afghanistan’s Asia Cup roster, with Naveen-ul-Haq absent. In his place, 22-year-old pacer Abdollah Ahmadzai has been named. Ahmadzai, who has taken 14 wickets in 10 T20 matches, is yet to make his international debut and is among the reserves for the Asia Cup.

A key development for the tri-series is the potential T20I debut of mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar, who joins an already formidable spin unit consisting of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman, and Noor Ahmad. With this combination, Afghanistan aim to leverage their spin strength on the Sharjah pitches.

The tri-series also marks the return of opener Ibrahim Zadran, who missed Afghanistan’s last T20I assignment in Zimbabwe in December 2024, while left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote has been left out of the main squad but remains a reserve for the Asia Cup. Afghanistan will kick off the tri-series against Pakistan, followed by two encounters with UAE in a double round-robin format.

Alongside Rashid, Zadran, and Mujeeb, other key members of the squad include Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Noor Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad, and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

The tri-series will act as a warm-up event ahead of the much-anticipated ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025, which begins on Sept.9. All matches in the tri-series will be played under lights.

“The tri-series will feature teams from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UAE from Aug.29 to Sept.7 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium,” the PCB said earlier.

Originally, Pakistan were set to host Afghanistan for a bilateral T20I series this month. However, the PCB suggested transforming it into a tri-series in the UAE to help players familiarise themselves with the conditions ahead of the Asia Cup.