The 13^th Asia Cup and first in a T20 format is near. The tournament will be held from 24^th February to 6^th March 2016 in Bangladesh. But before the clash of 5 team tournament, it’s time to determine who that fifth team will be. It will be confirmed through qualifier matches just before the main tournament.

The qualifier matches will be played from 19^th February to 22^nd February between four associate nations at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah, Bangladesh. The four associate nations are Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Oman and UAE. The tournament will be played through a round-robin system. Only one nation will qualify for the main event. The team who finish at the top of the table in this qualifier tournament will go through to the main event.

It looks like, Afghanistan is the favourite in the qualifier round. This team is most experienced in the international circuit among the other three associate nations. Except Hong Kong, Afghanistan has never lost against 2 other associate nations in T20I while Hong Kong beat Afghanistan twice in 3 T20I meetings between them. Whatever be the case in bilateral matches, one can imagine that Afghanistan will produce better performances in the 2016 Asia Cup T20 than the other three nations.

On the other hand, Hong Kong is the strong contender to give a tough and challenge Afghanistan, while UAE and the new rising cricketing nation Oman will also try to improve their performances in T20I through this qualifying tournament.

The qualifying tournament is a big platform of preparation for Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Oman for 2016 World T20 which will begin on 8^th March 2016. These three associate nations will play in the first round of qualifying in the Super 10 of 2016 World T20.

2016 Asia Cup T20 Qualifiers’ squad

Afghanistan: Asghar Stanikzai (c), Noor Ali Zadran, Mohammad Shahzad, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Sadiq, Shafiqullah, Rashid Khan, Amir Hamza, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Samiullah Shenwari, Najibullah Zadran, Yamin Ahmadzai.

Hong Kong: Tanwir Afzal (c), Aizaz Khan, Anshy Rath, Babar Hayat, Christopher Carter, Mark Chapman, Haseeb Amjad, Adil Mehmood, Nadeem Ahmed, Nizakat Khan, Kinchit Shah, Ninad Shah, Tanveer Ahmed, Waqas Barkat, Waqas Khan.

Oman: Sultan Ahmed (c), Aamir Kaleem, Aaqib Sulehri, Adnan Ilyas, Amir Ali, Munis Ansari, Bilal Khan, Jatinder Singh, Ajay Lalcheta, Mehran Khan, Rajeshkumar Ranpura, Sufyan Mehmood, Vaibhav Wategaonkar, Zeeshan Maqsood, Zeeshan Siddiqui.

United Arab Emirates: Amjad Javed (c), Mohammad Kaleem, Rohan Mustafa, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammad Shahzad, Swapnil Patil, Usman Mushtaq, Ahmed Raza, Zaheer Maqsood, Mohammad Naveed, Farhan Ahmed, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammad Usman, Fahad Tariq, Saqlain Haider.

2016 Asia Cup T20 Qualifier match schedule (all the matches will be played at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah)

19 Feb – Afghanistan v UAE (13:30 local time; 13:00 IST)

19 Feb – Hong Kong v Oman (18:00 local time; 17:30 IST)

20 Feb – Afghanistan v Oman (13:30 local time; 13:00 IST)

21 Feb – Hong Kong v UAE (18:00 local time; 17:30 IST)

22 Feb – Afghanistan v Hong Kong (13:30 local time; 13:00 IST)

22 Feb – Oman v UAE (18:00 local time; 17:30 IST)