T20 World Cup 2026: Haider Shah comes in after Muhammad Zohaib leaves UAE squad for mental well-being and team welfare issues

The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 has approved Haider Shah as a replacement for Muhammad Zohaib in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) squad. Haider, who has played 16 T20Is, was named as a replacement after Zohaib was withdrawn from the squad due to player mental well-being and team welfare issues.

For the unversed, replacing a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee, and the UAE had to go through the same process for making a change to their original squad for the global event, being held in India and Sri Lanka. The International Cricket Council confirmed the development via a media release on Wednesday evening.

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) had previously stated that Zohaib was sent back home ahead of their opening match owing to disciplinary issues. It was further told by the board at the time that they will be revealing further details when deemed fit. Now, it has come to the fore that Zohaib had mental health as one of the reasons behind his departure from the twenty-team event.

Placed in the Group D of the ongoing competition, the UAE squad went through a massive drubbing in their opening game against New Zealand at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. They lost to the Mitchell Santner-led side by 10 wickets, which badly hurt their net run-rate on the table, where the competition is tight.

The Waseem Muhammad-led side will now be up against Canada on February 13, following which, they will also face Afghanistan on February 16. A couple of days later, they will conclude their group stage campaign with a game against South Africa. All of these matches are scheduled to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.

UAE's updated squad for T20 World Cup 2026

Waseem Muhammad (captain), Sohaib Khan, Mayank Kumar, Dhruv Parashar, Alishan Sharafu, Harshit Kaushik, Aryansh Sharma, Simranjeet Singh, Muhammad Rohid Khan, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Arfan, Junaid Siddique, Haider Ali, and Haider Shah