T20 World Cup | Buoyant Kiwis won’t take the UAE lightly

The first few days of the 2026 T20 World Cup have thrown up exciting matches, with associate countries pushing some of the established full-member outfits hard, even if they haven’t ultimately succeeded.

On Tuesday (February 10, 2026), the United Arab Emirates has a chance to show if it can go that one step further when it takes on New Zealand in its opening match.

Although the Middle Eastern country lost both warm-up games at MAC Stadium, skipper Muhammad Waseem felt it provided vital lessons ahead of the first match.

“We learnt some things, especially in batting and fielding. On the field, since it’s a slightly bigger ground, we are working on how to restrict doubles into singles. As a batting unit, we have to bat a little longer. If someone is set, we can always score in the last four to five overs,” said Waseem.

UAE has shown in recent years that it is capable of causing upsets, most notably its 2-1 home win over Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series last year.

The UAE has also beaten New Zealand once — back in 2023 — and that is enough reason for the Kiwis, fresh off a victory against Afghanistan, not to take this game lightly.

“I think that’s actually been good for the whole tournament as well,” said NZ batting coach Luke Ronchi on the performance of the associate teams so far.

“I guess you can have a sort of a lackadaisical mindset going into those sorts of games. But you need to understand that it is a World Cup. You have your own style of playing cricket and the standards you want to set. So it’s making sure we do that. And that is on the field with bat and ball, and it doesn’t matter against whom,” he added.