UAE bat; New Zealand unchanged from previous game against Afghanistan
The pitch in use in Chennai is red-soil based, and is expected to offer decent pace and carry
ESPNcricinfo staff
Feb 10, 2026, 9:22 AM • 2 hrs ago
Muhammad Waseem remains a vital cog for UAE • Emirates Cricket Board
UAE captain Muhammad Waseem won the toss and elected to bat in their first World Cup match since 2022.
That meant Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra, who were furiously visualising batting ahead of the clash, will have to wait 20 overs to showcase their wares. New Zealand remained unchanged from their victory over Afghanistan on Sunday.
The pitch in use in Chennai is red-soil based, and is expected to offer decent pace and carry. The one on Sunday was black-soil based.
UAE have had a player - Muhammad Zohaib - sent back home for "disciplinary reasons". Their batting is under scrutiny considering they were bowled out by Italy for 81 in their second warm-up match ahead of this T20 World Cup.
Waseem spoke about the learnings from that game - also played in Chennai - and took heart from beating New Zealand in a T20I once in 2023.
New Zealand: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Jimmy Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Jacob Duffy
UAE: 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 Rohid