First-timers Oman face in-form Pakistan

Pakistan could not have asked for a softer start than the one they will get at the Asia Cup - against tournament first-timers Oman. If the qualification event was held this year rather than 2024, Oman may not have made it to the UAE. The team that qualified 18 months ago bears little resemblance to the one that will line up against the two-time champions.

Oman were embroiled in a messy pay dispute earlier this year after the cricket board failed to pay its players in time for the 2024 T20 World Cup. While those dues have been cleared, most of the established players from that team are no longer with Oman; more than half the names in the Asia Cup squad were not part of the 2024 T20 World Cup. They last played T20I cricket in February, when they lost three games to the USA. Any attempt to build this side up as a credible challenger to Pakistan, and later India, stretches optimism.

Fresh off an impressive victory in the final of the tri-series, an otherwise imperfect tournament involving UAE and Afghanistan, Pakistan will treat this game as a useful warm-up against the stratospherically bigger challenge on Sunday against India. The defending champions put a marker down in a mauling of the UAE, taking just 106 deliveries to seal victory. The comparison with Pakistan is notable: while Salman Agha's men did defeat the UAE comfortably each of the two times they played, those games were significantly more competitive.

The game against Oman is also an opportunity for Pakistan to play in Dubai ahead of Sunday's clash, and their bowling combination remains a point of interest. Having rotated their quick bowlers and opted for a solitary wristspinner in the league games of the tri-series, they changed tack in the final, going with both wristspinners Sufiyan Muqeem and Abrar Ahmed. Surfaces in Dubai normally take plenty of turn, and Pakistan's combination could be a dry run of their plans against India.

Despite the heavy slant one way, Pakistan will not want to be stung again by an underdog. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, they lost to the USA before their game against India, where defeat knocked them out of the tournament. Despite the form Pakistan have shown coming into this Asia Cup, perhaps no team is more aware of the damage three hours of mayhem can do to three months of preparation.

Pakistan: WWLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Oman: LLLLL

Pakistan may have won the recent tri-series, but the inability of their top order to fire like it did against West Indies last month is a concern. Sahibzada Farhan stuck to the attacking game he has been given license for, but struggled to translate cameos into more meaningful scores - 21 in the tri-series opener was his highest score in five games. The contest against Oman is one last opportunity for him to play with that same kind of risk without the pressure that will build in games that follow, especially the one against India.

In a side that has suffered much upheaval, Jatinder Singh is a stabilising presence. The captain and opener has been a titan of Oman cricket for a decade, and at 36 continues to be their talisman. He is their highest scorer and made half-centuries in two of the three games Oman played this year. His career strike rate may be on the lower end, but it's ticked into the mid-120s in the past couple of years. In the slow conditions Dubai is expected to throw up, that might just about be fine if he can bat deep enough to post a competitive total.

Pakistan favoured rotation of their quick bowlers through the tri-series but may play their best XI before the contest against India.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Salman Ali Agha (capt), 5 Hasan Nawaz, 6 Mohammad Haris (wk), 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed

The recent pay dispute means much of this Oman side is new, which makes it tricky to determine a playing eleven.

Oman (probable): 1 Aamir Kaleem, 2 Jatinder Singh (capt), 3 Hammad Mirza, 4 Mohammad Nadeem, 5 Ayaan Khan, 6 Aryan Bisht, 7 Vinayak Shukla (wk), 8 Shakeel Ahmad, 9 Ashish Odedra, 10 Hassnain Shah, 11 Zikria Islam

The surface in Dubai is believed to offer more spin than the one in Abu Dhabi, the other venue in this tournament. The weather continues to be excessively hot, with temperatures in the mid-30s.