Afghanistan and Pakistan have travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a couple of weeks in advance before the Asia Cup as the two teams, alongside the hosts, have assembled for a short tri-series in Sharjah. The series will be a perfect segue into the upcoming Asia Cup for all three of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE, in order to zero down on their best XI, getting used to the temperatures in the UAE and conditions in general, even though the games in the continental tournament will be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The hosts UAE, will be better for the experience playing both Afghanistan and Pakistan twice before facing the mighty Indians in their Asia Cup opener. Apart from Muhammad Waseem, a few UAE players have also gotten the ILT20 experience, but facing strong teams like Afghanistan and Pakistan will keep them in good standing, given there are Asia-Pacific qualifiers to play immediately after the Asia Cup, to get into the running for the T20 World Cup next year.
Afghanistan and Pakistan would just want to get into the habit of playing tournament cricket since there would be a final in the tri-series, but tougher opponents await during the Asia Cup and hence, would serve as the best dress rehearsal for the same.
When and where to watch AFG vs PAK vs UAE T20I tri-series on TV and OTT in India?
The seven-match tri-series between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE will kick off in Sharjah on Friday, August 29 at 8:30 PM IST with the remaining matches scheduled for August 30, September 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7, with all games at the same venue with the identical start time. The UAE T20 tri-series will be telecast live on the Eurosport channel in India, while all the matches can be streamed live on the Fancode app and website.
Squads
Afghanistan: Rashid Khan (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad, Abdollah Ahmadzai, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Pakistan: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Sufyan Moqim
UAE: Muhammad Waseem (c), Haider Ali, Rahul Chopra, Ethan D’Souza, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Harshit Kaushik, Asif Khan, Rohid Khan, Saghir Khan, Dhruv Parashar, Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Zohaib