Pakistan, Afghanistan and UAE to play T20I tri-series in Sharjah ahead of Asia Cup

By ESPNcricinfo staff, Aug 1: Afghanistan, Pakistan and UAE will get a few more matches to prepare for the men's T20 Asia Cup when they compete in a T20 tri-series in Sharjah in August-September. The Asia Cup runs from September 9 to 28, also in the UAE.

As such, based on the ICC's future tours programme, Pakistan were expected to host Afghanistan for three T20Is in the window that has now been allotted to the tri-series.

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Each team will play the other twice in the round-robin stage of the tournament, with the top two contesting the final. All the games will be played from 7 pm local time. Pakistan are the highest-ranked side among the three on the ICC rankings at No. 8, with Afghanistan at No. 9, and UAE at No. 14.

Pakistan are currently engaged in a bilateral white-ball series, where they have won the first game, against the West Indies, and play their first match of the Asia Cup, against Oman on September 12. Afghanistan have not played a T20I since their bilateral series in Zimbabwe at the end of last year, and play their opening match of the Asia Cup, against Hong Kong on September 9.

Both the teams qualified directly for the T20 World Cup in 2026, to be played in India and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan as one of the top-seven teams (excluding the hosts) in the previous T20 World Cup and Pakistan based on their ranking on the ICC table at the cut-off date of June 30, 2024. UAE, meanwhile, have not yet confirmed their spot at the World Cup. They have to go through the Asia-East Asia and Pacific qualifiers, to be played in Oman from October 8 to 17, to get there if they can.