Credits: Asian Cricket Council

While the focus remains on the big clash coming up on Sunday, it's tomorrow (Friday night) that Pakistan commences it's Asia Cup campaign against Oman, who are playing the Asia Cup for the first time ever. It will be the second game in Group A and like the first one, will take place in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, starting at 7:30 PM Pakistan time (6:30 pm local time)

Where have all the usual Oman players gone?

Yes, you're right, this team has none of the usual suspects. There is no Zeeshan Maqsood, no Aqib Ilyas, no Bilal Khan etc.

It's missing almost all of its players that were representing the country in the 2024 T20I World Cup in the West Indies, due to a payment issue between the board and the players.

The ICC had a prize money of US $225,000 set aside for each of the teams finishing between 13th and 20th in the T20 World Cup which was not paid to the players until earlier this year in June. However, by then it was too late, as most of the players had already had to leave the country. As with most Gulf states, residency in the country is tied to the employment visas, thus they had to leave the country with the employments being revoked.

The matter was brought up multiple times by the Oman players after the conclusion of the 2024 T20 World Cup, but it reached a climax at the Emerging Asia Cup in 2024 which was played in Oman.

According to Kashyap Prajapati, who represented Oman in the T20 World Cup, the team finally took a unified stand and threatened that they won't play until they would receive an assurance regarding the prize money and when it would be given.

Discussions were held with senior board members but the players were then told that they have to play or else another 15 players were at standby for the tournament. And then, the players refused and were told to pack their bags and check out of their hotels.

Oman had their first game of the Emerging Asia Cup against UAE, and only five of the announced 15 players were part of that lineup; furthermore, only 2 of the players that were part of the T20 World Cup were part of the lineup.

Kashyap Prajapati claimed that they wouldn't even have known about the payments to be received if it weren't for the media hype regarding the record amounts on offer, and that they also never received their payments from the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Participating boards sign an agreement with the ICC that all payments will be given to the players within 21 days of receiving them from the ICC, and the ICC said that they had given the money in time to Oman's cricket board.

Yet it wasn't until June 2025 when Oman Cricket (OC) agreed to pay the player dues, and called the delay "procedural, dependent on post-event clarifications from the ICC" and said the payments would be disbursed to the players and support staff by July.

Only a few names can be recognized in this Oman squad by me, including captain Jatinder Singh, Muhammad Nadeem, Shakeel Ahmed and Aamir Kaleem. I might have missed or added a name, but these are all I remember having seen playing cricket for Oman.

What about Pakistan? What are they looking like?

Coming back to Pakistan, they have gone with a new look batting lineup, in comparison to what has been seen in the previous few tournaments, chosing not to go with the big names in Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan, as they try to adopt a more modern brand of cricket with aggressive-minded batsmen throughout the lineup.

Their preparations could not have been much better than what they have been, having arrived in the UAE on around 21-22 August and then having a very good time practicing in Dubai, also playing 2 practice matches in Dubai International Stadium among themselves and a few local players included. After that, they played a highly competitive and hard fought tri nation series against the UAE and Afghanistan in Sharjah, in which they comprehensively defeated Afghanistan in the final, bowling them out for 66 in the second innings and winning by 75 runs, which would've further enhanced their preparation.


Credits: AFP/Getty Images

Head-to-head and current form

This will be Pakistan's first ever T20I against Oman, and will be the first game for both of the teams in the tournament. It will be the second game in Group A, and will also be in Dubai like the first one between India and UAE.

Pakistan's last 5 T20Is (most recent first): W W L W W

Oman's last 5 T20Is (most recent first): L L L L L

Players to watch out for

Against an inexperienced or an associate team, a mystery spinner is absolute gold and for Pakistan, one can expect a big impact from Abrar Ahmed. He was left out for the first 3 games of the tri series but came in against UAE and immediately showed his impact, picking up 4/9 in his full quota before also picking up a couple in the final.

One feels that Pakistan may also have missed a trick by not playing him in their famous loss against the USA in the 2024 T20 World Cup, with them being an associate side and would likely have struggled against the mystery and variations of Abrar

On the other hand, the Oman captain Jatinder Singh would have a massive responsibility on his shoulders not just as a captain, but also because he's one of the few players who survived the payment dispute post the 2024 T20 World Cup. He is their highest scorer in both ODIs and T20Is, and has 2 fifties in the three T20Is that Oman has played this year against the USA back in February.

Pitch and Conditions

The game will be played on the same surface which was used for the first Group A game between India and UAE. The surface saw help for the spinners, as India had gone with three spin options in Kuldeep, Varun and Axar. With the surface being re-used, one can expect further help for the spinners and gives an incentive to keep more spin options in the line-up.

Since the previous game in this ground finished relatively early, we could not see how much dew there was, if any. Tomorrow could be another chance to see that, given the crucial role it has going forward in the tournament. The weather continues to be hot, with the temperature in the mid-30s.

Probable Playing XIs

Pakistan is expected to go with the same batting lineup as they did in the tri-series. However with the surface being a re-used one, they could go with three spinners, or they could stick with Faheem which gives them extra batting depth. Wasim Jr could also be an option, seeing how confident Hesson was with his death bowling and the role he could play in Dubai with his reverse swing while announcing the squad, however that seems unlikely given he had absolutely no game time during the tri series.

Pakistan XI (probable): Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (c), Hassan Nawaz, Muhammad Haris (wk), Muhammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf/Sufyan Muqeem, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

It's tough to determine what the XI would look like for a new look Oman side, completely different from what we have seen in the T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2024.

Oman XI (probable): Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Muhammad Nadeem, Ashish Odedara, Vinayak Shukla, Aryan Bisht, Sufyan Mehmood, Samay Shrivastava, Shakeel Ahmed, Hassnain Shah

Pakistan's complete schedule in Group A