Pakistan women ready for Asia Cup

Fatima Sana-led team placed with Thailand, India and Hong Kong in the group

Fatima Sana-led Pakistan women’s team will take the field against Thailand in their first match of the ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026 on Tuesday, September 1, while the tournament is set to kick off on Friday.

Meanwhile, Thailand will be up against Hong Kong, China women in the opening match of the tournament.

All the fixtures in the 15-match tournament will take place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS) and will begin at 7.30pm PST. Pakistan, who are placed in Group A, are set to face India on September 5 in their second match and will play Hong Kong, China on September 7.

Defending champions Sri Lanka have been bracketed in Group B with Bangladesh, Indonesia and United Arab Emirates.

The semi-finals of the eight-team tournament will be played on September 10 and 11, respectively, with the final slated for September 13.

Pakistan squad reached UAE on August 26 after preparing for the tournament with a ten-day training camp at the National Cricket Academy at Lahore.

In Pakistan’s squad, top-order batter Sadaf Shamas replaced wicket-keeper-batter Najiha Alvi, who was ruled out of the tournament due to left knee injury.

Pakistan women played three T20Is at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. At the Women’s Asia Cup, Pakistan’s best results have been in 2012 and 2016 when they finished runners-up in consecutive editions of the tournament. In 2022 and 2024 editions, Pakistan’s campaign ended at the semi-finals stage.

The current edition of the tournament will be the tenth and sixth in T20 format after the first four tournaments in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 were played in one-day format.

Pakistan women’s captain Fatima Sana in her pre-departure media talk said, “We played matches against boys in our pre-tournament camp and that also helped us create pressure situations on the team, which is really helpful. Our aim is to adopt to the conditions as soon as possible in the tournament," Fatima said.

“We created such scenarios that helped our players deal with pressure situations. I’ll try to take the challenge of this tournament day-by-day and no one game is more important in the event. We want to win every single game and produce positive results.”

Pakistan squad:

Fatima Sana (captain), Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Nashra Sundhu, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar.

Reserves: Tasmia Rubab, Humna Bilal, Maham Anees

Officials: Wahab Riaz (coach/mentor), Ayesha Ashar (team manager), Abdur Rehman (spin bowling coach), Umaid Asif (fast bowling coach), Abdul Majeed (fielding coach), Imran Farhat (batting coach), Waleed Ahmed (performance analyst), Moeen (strength and conditioning coach), Dur Samand (ohysiotherapist), Raza Rashid Kitchlew (media manager)