Pakistan Host Asian Squash Team Championships in Islamabad

Pakistan's squash season comes home this week. The 23rd Asian Squash Team Championships 2026 begin on Tuesday, November 3, at the Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad, and the hosts arrive as the team to beat in the men's event and as a side with everything to play for in the women's competition. Five days, six nations and 44 players will decide who rules Asian team squash, and for the first time in a long while, the biggest week of the continental calendar is being played on Pakistani courts.

It is a timely homecoming. Pakistan's men took silver at the Asian Games in Japan last month, beaten 2-0 by Malaysia in the final after a run that included a 2-0 quarter-final win over Korea and a stirring 2-1 semi-final comeback against Hong Kong. Now the same core group gets to chase a continental title in front of its own crowd, on the all-glass court at Mushaf, with the draw set up to reward exactly what this team does best: depth across all four playing positions.

The squads Pakistan have named

Pakistan have named settled, familiar squads for both events, and the men's selection in particular reads like a statement of intent. Noor Zaman leads the team, followed by Muhammad Ashab Irfan, Muhammad Asim Khan and Nasir Iqbal, with Tahir Iqbal as coach. The women's team is Sana Bahadar, Mehwish Ali, Mahnoor Ali and Sehrish Ali, coached by Sadia Gul. Group Captain (retired) Irfan Asghar will manage both national teams.

The strength of the men's four is that there is no weak link for an opponent to target. On the ranking list used for the seedings, dated September 30, 2026, all four Pakistan men sit inside the world's top 100: Noor Zaman at 33, Ashab Irfan at 50, Asim Khan at 77 and Nasir Iqbal at 94. No other men's team in Islamabad can match that spread. Hong Kong's leading man, Lau Tsz Kwan, was ranked 44th on the same list, and Malaysia's Joachim Chuah 62nd, which is why the hosts start as favourites on paper even before home support is factored in.

The women's picture is tougher, and honestly so. Sana Bahadar, ranked 179th on the seeding list, leads a young side in which Mehwish Ali sits at 527 and Mahnoor Ali and Sehrish Ali are unranked. Hong Kong, the top women's seeds led by Chan Sin Yuk at 25th, and second seeds Malaysia, start well ahead of the field. For Pakistan's women, this week is about development, exposure and stealing a tie or two against teams closer to their level, with the match against Iran on Friday, November 6, looking like their most winnable fixture.

Men's draw: top seeds, straight road to the semi-finals

The men's event has six teams after Sri Lanka withdrew from both competitions on October 24. Pakistan, as top seeds, head Pool A alongside Korea and Uzbekistan. Pool B contains second seeds Hong Kong, third seeds Malaysia and fifth seeds Iran. The pool winners go directly into Friday's semi-finals, where they meet the runners-up from the opposite pool.

Pakistan's route is short and sharp: two pool ties, both on the glass court at 4:00 pm, and then, if they win the pool as expected, a semi-final on Friday evening. There is no room for a slow start, but equally no long group slog to drain the squad before the medal matches.

Pakistan men's tie	Day	Time (PKT)	Court
Pakistan v Uzbekistan	Tuesday, November 3	4:00 pm	Glass court
Pakistan v Korea	Wednesday, November 4	4:00 pm	Glass court
Semi-final (if Pool A winners)	Friday, November 6	5:00 pm	Glass court
Final	Saturday, November 7	3:00 pm	Glass court

The Korea tie on Wednesday is the one to circle. Pakistan beat Korea 2-0 in the Asian Games quarter-final, with Ashab Irfan winning the opener and Noor Zaman sealing the tie, but Korea will have studied that defeat and arrive with nothing to lose. Uzbekistan, first up on Tuesday, are the unknown quantity of the pool, and opening-day ties in team events have a habit of producing surprises when a lower-ranked player catches fire in front of a crowd.

Across in Pool B, the shape of the semi-finals will be decided by three ties: Hong Kong against Iran at midday on Tuesday, Hong Kong against Malaysia at midday on Wednesday, and Malaysia against Iran at 4:00 pm on Thursday. A Pakistan-Malaysia rematch of the Asian Games final can only happen in the semi-finals or the final this time, because the two sides are in opposite pools. That is the final the home crowd will be dreaming of on Saturday afternoon.

Women's event: a five-team round robin

The women's competition works differently. With five teams and no pools, every side plays every other side once, and the team with the best record at the end of the week takes the title. Pakistan, seeded fourth, play all four of their ties between Wednesday and Saturday.

Pakistan women's tie	Day	Time (PKT)	Court
Pakistan v Hong Kong, China	Wednesday, November 4	2:00 pm	Glass court
Pakistan v Malaysia	Thursday, November 5	2:00 pm	Glass court
Pakistan v Iran	Friday, November 6	10:00 am	Glass court
Pakistan v Korea	Saturday, November 7	11:00 am	Court 2

The draw is unforgiving at the start: Hong Kong and Malaysia, the top two seeds, in the first two ties. But that also means Pakistan's women get the hardest matches out of the way early, with the Iran tie on Friday morning and the closing tie against Korea on Saturday offering realistic chances to finish the week on a high. The match most likely to decide the women's title, Hong Kong against Malaysia, is scheduled for 1:00 pm on Saturday, November 7, just before the men's final.

Why home advantage matters so much in squash

Squash is one of the few sports where the venue genuinely changes the game. The glass court at Mushaf will play differently from a traditional plaster court: the ball comes off glass with a different pace, the sightlines for players and spectators are open, and the noise of a home crowd travels straight onto the court. Teams that train on glass courts adapt quickly; teams that do not can spend a match chasing a ball that behaves a fraction differently from what they expect.

That is Pakistan's edge, and it is also why the 4:00 pm start times for the men's ties matter. Those are the showcase slots of each day, the ones that will draw the biggest crowds into the complex in Aabpara. A full, loud Mushaf is worth a game or two to the home side in a tight tie, and in team squash, where a tie is decided by individual matches and often comes down to a deciding rubber, a game or two is everything.

There is also the weight of history. Pakistan were once the dominant force in world squash, and while the men's game has been led by Egypt for a generation, the Asian team title is a realistic, tangible target for this group. Winning it at home, a month after Asian Games silver, would be the clearest sign yet that the revival is real rather than a single good week in Japan.

Players to watch

Noor Zaman is the obvious headline act. Pakistan's top-ranked man and the player opponents build their game plans around, he sealed the Asian Games quarter-final against Korea and has carried the No. 1 slot through the season. If he wins both his pool matches, Pakistan are almost certainly through to the semi-finals.

Muhammad Ashab Irfan is the form player of the group. He won the opening match of both the Asian Games quarter-final and semi-final, and his ability to set the tone in the first rubber of a tie is what allows the rest of the team to play with freedom. Muhammad Asim Khan and Nasir Iqbal complete a quartet in which the third and fourth strings are stronger than most teams' second strings, which is exactly how team titles are won.

For the women, Sana Bahadar carries the heaviest load as the No. 1, while Mehwish Ali and the Ali sisters, Mahnoor and Sehrish, will be playing for experience that no training camp can replicate: four ties in four days against the best in Asia, at home.

What to watch for this week

First, the Tuesday opener. Pakistan against Uzbekistan at 4:00 pm sets the tone for the whole championship, and a comfortable win would settle any home nerves. Second, the Wednesday double-header: the men against Korea at 4:00 pm, two hours after the women open against Hong Kong at 2:00 pm, makes it the biggest day of the week for Pakistani fans. Third, Friday's semi-finals, where the crossover format means Pakistan's men could meet Malaysia a round earlier than the final if either side slips up in its pool.

One practical note for fans planning to attend: the federation's published documents do not list ticket prices or a live stream, so check the Asian Squash Federation's event page on the morning of each day's play before heading to the Mushaf Squash Complex. The glass-court ties, especially Pakistan's 4:00 pm starts, are expected to draw the biggest crowds.

Elsewhere in world squash this week, the sport's focus is split between Islamabad and Philadelphia, where the US Open championships run from November 1 to 7, and Brno, where India's Velavan Senthilkumar reached the Czech Open final on Monday. The PSA Tour also named Egypt's Amina Orfi and Peru's Diego Elias as its October Players of the Month on Monday, a reminder of the standard Pakistan's players are chasing. But for the next five days, the centre of the squash world is a glass court in Islamabad, and Pakistan have a genuine chance to finish the week as Asian champions.

Sources: The News (Pakistan name teams for Asian Squash Championships); Pakera (Asian Team Squash Championships 2026 schedule, seedings and draws, verified against the Asian Squash Federation's published documents); PSA Squash Tour (Czech Open final, October Players of the Month). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, illustrative only and not photographs from the Islamabad championship.