CP Rizwan to lead UAE during Asia Cup 2022 T20 qualifiers

Emirates Cricket on Thursday named a new captain for the T20 team as they announced the squad for the Asia Cup 2022 qualifiers, which will played in Oman from Saturday.

Batsman CP Rizwan has been named captain for the T20 tournament qualifiers, taking over from Ahmed Raza who remains leader of the ODI side.

Explaining the decision in a statement, Emirates Cricket said: "[The] selection committee advised that, commencing with the Asia Cup qualifier, the role of captaining T20 and ODI sides would now be tasked to two persons.

"The committee believes [that] by providing the respective captains a sole-format-focus, it creates a strong leadership succession plan, and encourages a singular commitment to fine-tuning strategic on-field components of the game."

"UAE’s T20 game is in good standing and has exceptional depth," the statement continued. "This strategy comes at the optimal time to assess what is best for this format moving into the T20 World Cup and beyond. Therefore, Ahmed Raza will continue as the UAE’s ODI captain, where it is anticipated that under his guidance and experience, UAE’s ODI performance will reap the benefits of his knowledge. CP Rizwan has been named T20 captain for the upcoming Asia Cup campaign."

The decision was made after what the board said was a "review of the side’s recent 50-over performance". The national team recently concluded a disheartening tour of Scotland, where they lost three World Cup League 2 matches to the hosts and USA in Aberdeen last week, with the last abandoned due to rain.

UAE coach and director of cricket Robin Singh said: “It’s important we remain focused on the immediate task; one match, one win at a time. And each win in the qualifier is a step closer to the goal of competing in the Asia Cup. We have solid experience with the conditions in Oman and our team knows the areas we need to focus on.”

Dr Tayeb Kamali, selection committee chairman, added: “This is an exceptionally exciting time for UAE Cricket. The qualifier is a great opportunity in our quest to compete in the Asia Cup 2022, and play against the best of our game, on home-soil.”

The qualifier will run from August 20-24. UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong will play the qualifying round with the winners of that joining India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in the main tournament.

The Asia Cup begins on August 27 and the final will take place in Dubai on September 11.

UAE T20 squad: CP Rizwan (captain), Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem, Vriitya Aravind, Ahmed Raza, Basil Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Karthik Meiyappan, Zahoor Khan, Zawar Farid, Alishan Sharafu, Sabir Ali, Aryan Lakra, Sultan Ahmad, Junaid Siddique, Fahad Nawaz.