🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup : M 11: NZ vs UAE at Chennai🏏

NZ meet unfamiliar opponents

One misstep against Afghanistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup derailed New Zealand's entire campaign. Two years later, New Zealand flipped the script despite injuries and illness, their opening win against Afghanistan in the group of death, which also includes South Africa, raising their chances of making the next round. Next up, an unfamiliar opponent: just six players in New Zealand's 15-man squad have faced UAE in international cricket before.

New Zealand can rely on intel from Mark Chapman, who had come up against UAE more often when he was playing for Hong Kong, and Lockie Ferguson, who is more familiar with the UAE players owing to his stint in the ILT20 as Desert Vipers' captain. They certainly won't take UAE lightly - in 2023, a New Zealand side that included the likes of Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert and Chapman was toppled by UAE in Dubai.

For UAE, this is a chance for them to remind the world that they can challenge top teams after they had missed out on qualification for the 2024 T20 World Cup.

UAE have won just one of their six games at the T20 World Cup, but thanks to the ILT20, most of their players are up to speed with the format. Their captain Muhammad Waseem is a serial six-hitter while Alishan Sharafu can be just as explosive and float in the batting line-up. Left-arm spinner Haider Ali can stifle batters with his accuracy in the powerplay while fast bowler Junaid Siddique can nail yorkers.

UAE beat Bangladesh recently in a bilateral T20I series and gave Pakistan a scare in the Asia Cup. They will be hoping to add more scalps in international cricket.

When: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 3 PM local time | 9:30 AM GMT

Where: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

What to expect: New Zealand's batting coach confirmed that it will be played on a fresh red soil surface. That's definitely not good news for UAE.

Form Guide New Zealand: WLWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)

UAE:LLLWW

In the spotlight: Rachin Ravindra and Muhammad Waseem

Rachin Ravindra has had a rough build-up to this T20 World Cup. After illness forced him out of the warm-up game against USA in Navi Mumbai, he bagged a golden duck in New Zealand's opening game against Afghanistan and conceded 14 runs in the only over he bowled, though he picked up the wicket of a well-set Gulbadin Naib. He will look to make a more substantial contribution on Tuesday.

When Muhammad Waseem gets going, he can cause serious damage, and New Zealand know that as well. The UAE captain has struck 190 sixes in 93 T20I innings and is just 16 away from toppling Rohit Sharma's all-time T20I record. He continues to be the face of UAE cricket in international cricket and the ILT20.

Team news

If Michael Bracewell, who is nursing a calf injury, doesn't recover in time, New Zealand will likely stick with seam-bowling allrounder Jimmy Neesham though he conceded 33 runs in his three wicketless overs against Afghanistan. Finn Allen has been cleared to bat but his shoulder niggle has restricted him from throwing properly in the field. On Sunday, he was mostly at short fine leg and only engaged in under-arm throws.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Jimmy Neesham/Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Jacob Duffy

With UAE using Sharafu in the middle order, wicketkeeper-batter Aryansh Sharma will pair up with Waseem at the top. There may be a toss-up between Haider and Simranjeet Singh for the left-arm spinner's spot. Muhammad Zohaib, who was supposed to slot in at No.3, has been sent back home due to "disciplinary issues," according to a statement from the ECB. Sohaib Khan could potentially replace him in UAE's XI.

UAE (probable): 1 Aryansh Sharma (wk), 2 Muhammad Waseem (capt), 3 Alishan Sharafu, 4 Sohaib Khan, 5 Harshit Kaushik, 6 Mayank Kumar, 7 Dhruv Parashar, 8 Muhammad Arfan, 9 Haider Ali, 10 Junaid Siddique, 11 Muhammad Jawadullah

Pitch and conditions

The Chennai pitch had some covering of grass on Sunday and offered encouraging bounce in the early exchanges between New Zealand and Afghanistan before providing some grip to the slower bowlers as well. With this being a day game as well - 3pm IST start - the surface is expected to play in similar fashion.

Stats and trivia

• Seifert is three sixes away from 100 T20I sixes while Allen is five away from the mark. Only Martin Guptill, Colin Munro and Phillips have hit 100 or more sixes for New Zealand in the format.
• Since the end of the previous T20 World Cup, Jacob Duffy has taken 23 wickets in the powerplay in 29 innings. Only Zimbabwe's Richard Ngarava has more wickets (25) than Duffy in the powerplay during this period, with the benefit of more innings.
• Haider Ali's economy rate of 5.93 in the powerplay is the best among all bowlers in the ILT20 (for a minimum of 20 innings).

Did you know:

UAE clinched the final spot at the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, becoming the 20th and last team to qualify after an eight-wicket win over Japan in the Asia & East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.

UAE has 11 wins against full-member sides in T20Is - the most by an Associate nation alongside Namibia.

What they said:

"I think that's been good for the whole tournament as well. Those games are, I guess you can have a sort of a lackadaisical mindset going into those sorts of games, but you need to understand it is a World Cup. You do have your own styles of playing your cricket and I guess standards you want to set. So it's making sure we do that and that is in the field, it's with the bat, it's with the ball, it's knowing that the way we want to present ourselves, the presence we want to have out on the pitch, it doesn't matter who it's against" - New Zealand batting coach Luke Ronchi on the Associate nations pushing the top teams in the competition early on

"From the warm-up games, we learned so many things, especially in the batting and the fielding, you know, it's a little bit bigger ground. So in the fielding side, we learned so many things, how we can cut the doubles into the singles. And as a batting team, I think we have to bat a little bit long for the last four or five overs." - UAE captain Muhammad Waseem

Thank you Soni, for the thread and for tagging me.

Best wishes to both the teams.

14:00 Local Time, 08:30 GMT: "These are the extremes, flat wickets and stuff. I guess our first game is in Chennai against Afghanistan, which could look a lot different to what we've got here" - Mitchell Santner after India chased down 153 in 10 overs in the third T20I in the recently concluded series. Those words feel even more relevant now. Chennai offered a contrasting surface, a morning start, and memories of defeat against Afghanistan in the previous edition - all factors stacked against New Zealand. Yet, when it mattered, the Black Caps adapted superbly. They not only overcame those challenges but made a statement, chasing down Afghanistan’s 182 with 13 balls to spare. Santner led from the front with a miserly spell, and apart from Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra, every batter contributed in the chase. Today, New Zealand turn their attention to the United Arab Emirates, who begin their campaign here. Having already cracked the conditions at Chepauk, the Black Caps will fancy their chances of making it two wins from two and tightening their grip on the group early in the tournament.