Abu Dhabi, Sep 15 (IANS) Oman won the toss and elected to bowl first against the United Arab Emirates in the seventh match of the Asia Cup 2025 Group A clash at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.

Oman handed a T20I debut to Aryan Bisht, who featured in two ODIs during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 earlier this year in May. The youngster now gets his first taste of T20I cricket as Oman look to bounce back in the Asia Cup.

For the UAE, Simranjeet Singh will miss the match while Muhammad Jawad returns to the playing 11.

Oman captain Jatinder Singh said, “We are going to bowl first. Well I think the ball comes nicely on the bat in night and the ball travels pretty quickly as well. We had one of the off days, the boys will apply themselves and we will have a good day. We have three changes, Aryan Bisht is debuting today.”

India’s demolition of the UAE and Pakistan’s hammering of Oman have piled the pressure on the two Gulf nations to keep themselves alive in the tournament. UAE crumbled for just 57 against India, showing little resistance apart from brief starts by their openers and a solitary wicket from Junaid Siddique.

Oman, meanwhile, endured a similar fate, bowled out for 67 while chasing Pakistan’s 160/7, despite impressive spells from debutant Faisal Shah and seasoned campaigner Aamir Kaleem.

UAE captain Muhammad Waseem said, “We are happy to bowl first, the pitch is looking good maybe the wicket will help. We came here on a new day with a new plan. We will try to win our 6th match against them. We have one change, Simranjeet is not playing, Jawad is playing.”

Playing XIs:

Oman: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Aryan Bisht, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Faisal Shah, Shakeel Ahmed, Hassnain Ali Shah, Samay Shrivastava, Wasim Ali.

United Arab Emirates: Alishan Sharafu, Muhammad Waseem (c), Mohammad Zuhaib Khan, Rahul Chopra (wk), Asif Khan, Harshit Kaushik, Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Rohid Khan, Muhammad Jawadullah.

–IANS

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