Former Pakistan pacer Yasir Arafat was added to the UAE national team's support staff as the squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup was announced with veteran batter Muhammad Waseem named as captain.
Seasoned opener Waseem will lead the UAE as they look to make a mark in the T20 tournament that begins on February 7 in India and Sri Lanka.
The UAE, among a number of Associate teams set to take part in the 20-team tournament, will be hoping for a better performance than the last time they participated in the T20 World Cup in 2022 where the national team won one match in the group stage.
Helping them in their quest this time will be experienced bowling coach Arafat, who represented Pakistan at the international level before becoming a regular face in English county cricket.
Arafat completed a Level 4 coaching programme with the England cricket board and took up coaching full time. He has served as Pakistan's national team high performance coach and was also a bowling consultant with the South African team last year.
Arafat, 43, will work with the UAE team during the World Cup and the ongoing two-match T20 series against Ireland.
Th UAE are placed in Group D in the T20 tournament. Their group also includes Afghanistan, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The national team will play two warm-up matches in Chennai - against Nepal and Italy - ahead of their opening match of the tournament against New Zealand.
The UAE squad includes three players from the team that competed in the 2022 tournament. Apart from Waseem, Alishan Sharafu and Junaid Siddique also made the trip to Australia.
UAE team for T20 World Cup: Muhammad Waseem (captain), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma (wk), Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Mayank Kumar, Muhammad Arfan, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Zohaib, Rohid Khan, Sohaib Khan and Simranjeet Singh
Support staff: Lalchand Rajput (head coach), Yasir Arafat (fast bowling coach), Stanley Chioza (fielding coach), Azharuddin Qureshi (strength and conditioning coach)
UAE’s Group D fixtures:
February 10 – v New Zealand, Chennai
February 13 – v Canada, Delhi
February 16 – v Afghanistan, Delhi
February 18 – v South Africa, Delhi
