Cricket Boards of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have announced their respective 14-member men’s national squads for upcoming ACC Western Region T20 tournament, to be held at Oman from Feb 21st – 28th, 2020.
Oman will host team’s from United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Western Region T20 event, from which the two finalist’s will qualify for the Asia Cup qualifiers. They will join the top two team’s from the Eastern Region T20, to be hosted by Thailand in the qualifiers.
Oman, Qatar, Maldives and Bahrain are placed in one group, while the other group consists of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. All countries will play each other in a single round-robin group stage format, before the top two teams advance to the semi-final stage of the tournament.
Some of the members of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain squads are familiar with the conditions at Al Amerat grounds, as they made their men’s T20I debuts during the standalone Western Region T20 tournament held in Jan 2019, which Saudi Arabia went onto win after their victory over Qatar on the final. Bahrain also registered two wins in the tournament, including the group stage victory over Saudi Arabia, where they made 176/4 batting first and restricted Saudi Arabia for 135/9 to win by 41 runs. However, with the presence of both Oman and UAE in the tournament this time, the competition will be much more tougher for both the countries.
Saudi Arabia Squad
Shoaib Ali (Captain), Ibrar ul Haq, Abdul Waheed, Faisal Khan, Shamsudheen Englam Purat, Usman Ali, Malik Muhammad Naeem, Sajid Imran Cheema, Zeeshan Sarfraz Butt, Abdul Wahid, Imran Yousaf, Syed Ali Abbas, Adil Butt and Khawar Zafar
Top Players during Western Region T20 in Oman in Jan 2019
Faisal Khan (134 runs and 1 wicket in 4 innings), Sajid Imran Cheema (118 runs in 5 innings), Shamsudheen Englam Purat (95 runs in 3 innings), Malik Muhammad Naeem (90 runs in 4 innings), Ibrar ul Haq (69 runs and 7 wickets in 5 innings), Abdul Wahid (32 runs and 5 wickets in 5 innings), Usman Ali (4 wickets in 5 innings) and Shoaib Ali (3 wickets in 5 innings)
Bahrain Squad
Anasim Khan, Fiaz Ahmed, Junaid Niazi, Ahsan Ullah Khan, Imran Ali Butt, Mohd Sameer Fayyaz, Sathaiyah Veerapathiran, Ammad Uddin, Imran Javed, Muhammad Younis, Shahbaz Badar, Abdul Majid Malik, Imran Masood Butt and Sarfraz Ali
Top Players during Western Region T20 in Oman in Jan 2019
Sarfraz Ali (141 runs and 2 wickets in 4 innings), Fiaz Ahmed (112 runs in 4 innings), Imran Ali Butt (111 runs in 4 innings), Ammad Uddin (101 runs in 4 innings), Imran Javed (23 runs and 5 wickets in 4 innings)
