In the aftermath of the ‘Handshake Gate’ in opposition to India on Monday (September 15, 2025), the PCB has sought the removing of match referee Andy Pycroft, and as per reviews within the Pakistani media the nation has threatened to tug out of the match if the Zimbabwean is just not expelled.
Pycroft is scheduled to officiate as match referee throughout Pakistan’s ultimate league recreation of the match.
While the entire transfer is extra administrative in nature and extremely unlikely to materialise, the gamers will discover it powerful to cocoon themselves from the encircling noise.
But that is just one a part of the story as Pakistan has much more urgent issues to handle on the sector.
Pakistan has one win and a defeat from two matches and are at present on the second spot with two factors, forward of UAE (2 factors) on internet run charge — 1.64 in opposition to -2.03 — however a slip-up right here will present them the exit.
The seven-wicket thrashing in opposition to India has revealed a sure brittleness on this Pakistan facet.
After hammering minnows Oman by a big margin, Pakistan was schooled within the trendy T20 recreation by world champions India.
Pakistan had no solutions to the guiles of spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel because the Indian pair shared 5 wickets amongst them.
The Pakistan batters had been additionally in a knot in opposition to spinner Varun Chakravarthy.
If something, that outing underlined the necessity for Pakistan’s rising prospects like Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan and Hasan Nawaz to lift their recreation in opposition to a top-quality opponent.
The UAE recreation provides them an excellent probability to seek out their mojo to take their facet to the Super 4s, as India have already certified to the following stage from this group.
Similarly, Pakistan bowlers struggled in opposition to the aggression and abilities of Indian batters as Abhishek Sharma took Shaheen Shah Afridi to the cleaners earlier than skipper Suryakumar Yadav utilized the ending touches with customary flourish.
Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed did fairly nicely, however the likes of Mohammad Nawaz, touted because the world’s greatest spinner by coach Mike Hesson, and Sufiyan Muqeem must discover a larger gear on this match.
While the UAE is actually not India in cricketing phrases, they will spring a shock on their day.
They appeared to have recovered from the shellacking in opposition to India with a facile 42-run win over Oman.
Batters like skipper Mohammed Waseem and Alishan Sharafu are nicely skilled within the T20 format, and they are going to be desperate to prey on a distracted Pakistan unit.
In bowling, the UAE have skilled Junaid Siddique, who might be fairly full of life, and the parsimonious left-arm spinner Haider Ali, however he would require extra assist from fellow tweakers Dhruv Parashar and Harshit Kaushik.
Squads:
Pakistan: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Afridi, Sufyan Moqim.
United Arab Emirates: Muhammad Waseem (c), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Asif Khan, Dhruv Parashar, Ethan D’Souza, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Matiullah Khan, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Zohaib, Rahul Chopra, Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Saghir Khan.
Match begins at 8 p.m. IST.
