Series Preview - NZ VS UAE T20i

New Zealand Cricket and UAE Cricket have both announced their squads for the 3-match T20i series with 2 new debutants for the Blackcaps coming in.

Current T20 captain Kane Williamson is recovering from an ACL injury sustained during the IPL. This means Tim Southee has taken the captaincy over for this series.

Many players including Glenn Philips, Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway, and many others miss out due to prior commitments. However, Kyle Jamieson comes back into the squad after a period riddled with injuries.

Dean Foxcroft and Adi Ashok have been rewarded with gaining selection for a debut tour this time around. Dean Foxcroft has been awarded to play for the Blackcaps under the ICC’s “exceptional circumstances” criteria.

“It’s always exciting to introduce new players to the BLACKCAPS environment and especially so when they’re on the younger side, as Adi and Dean are.” Stead said.

The UAE Squad, it’s a pretty stock standard squad. However, they feature debutante Asif Kahn, who has been exceptional in the One Day format.

Mohammed Wassem and Vriiya Aravind will be the main players to watch with the bat for the UAE with high averages for the last year. Zahoor Kahn will be the main bowling threat with a 6.42 economy rate in the last year in T20i.

UAE will be fired up and ready to go for this series against a much stronger opponent statistically speaking. I’m predicting a 3-0 sweep to the Blackcaps this series even with a weaker line-up.

NZ Squad:

Tim Southee (C), Adi Ashok, Chad Bowes, Mark Chapman, Dane Cleaver, Jacob Duffy, Dean Foxcroft, Kyle Jamieson, Ben Lister, Cole McConchie, Jimmy Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Will Young

UAE Squad:

Muhammad Waseem (C), Ali Naseer, Ansh Tandon, Aryansh Sharma, Asif Khan, Aayan Afzal Khan, Basil Hameed, Ethan D’Souza, Mohammed Faraazuddin, Jash Giyanani, Junaid Siddique, Lovepreet Singh, Mohammad Jawadullah, Sanchit Sharma, Vriitya Aravin, Zahoor Khan