By Gaurav Tripathi
Copyright newsbytesapp
Pakistan and hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) will face off in Match No. 10 of the ongoing T20 Asia Cup 2025. The match is scheduled to take place on Wednesday (September 17) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Both teams are vying for a spot in the Super Four stage of the tournament, making this encounter even more crucial than their previous meetings. Here are further details. The pitch at Dubai International Cricket Stadium is expected to favor spinners, with pacers likely to get some movement early on. So far, four matches have been played at this venue in this tournament with an average first-innings score of around 124 runs. Chasing teams have won three out of these four games, suggesting that the captain winning the toss would prefer bowling first on Wednesday. The match, which will get underway at 8:00pm IST, will telecast live on Sony Sports Networks in India, with live streaming available on FanCode and Sony LIV apps/websites. Pakistan started their Asia Cup 2025 campaign with a comfortable 93-run win over Oman. However, they suffered a setback against India in their last match, losing by seven wickets. Saim Ayub, who was expected to shine in this tournament, has been disappointing so far with two consecutive golden ducks. Now, Fakhar Zaman and Salman Ali Agha will have to use their experience and step up against UAE on Wednesday. The UAE started their Asia Cup 2025 campaign with a nine-wicket loss to India. However, they bounced back with a 42-run win against Oman. Now, openers Alishan Sharafu and Muhammad Waseem will be crucial in the match against Pakistan. They are high on confidence after scoring half-centuries against Oman. However, the Pakistan bowling attack is set to pose a greater challenge against them. In T20I matches, Pakistan have a perfect record against UAE, winning all three encounters. While their first meeting took place in the 2016 T20 World Cup, the two sides recently played two games in the UAE tri-series. UAE (Probable XI): Alishan Sharafu, Muhammad Waseem (c), Muhammad Zohaib, Rahul Chopra (wk), Asif Khan, Harshit Kaushik, Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Muhammad Rohid Khan, Muhammad Jawadullah, Junaid Siddique. Pakistan (Probable XI): Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed. Hasan Nawaz has scored 446 T20I runs while striking at 159.28. Abrar Ahmed boasts 15 T20I wickets this year at an average of 16.93. Though Saim Ayub has struggled with the bat lately, he has taken 13 T20I wickets with his off-spin bowling this year (ER: 6.94). UAE’s Muhammad Waseem recently became the fastest to complete 3,000 T20I runs by balls (1,947). In his recent outing against Pakistan last month, Asif Khan scored 77 runs off just 35 balls. 2354
