Abdul Samad Leads Pakistan Shaheens Rising Stars Squad

The Pakistan Cricket Board has named its squad for the next title defence on the country's cricket calendar, and it comes with a familiar, mouth-watering date circled in red. On Tuesday, November 3, the PCB announced a 15-member Pakistan Shaheens squad for the ACC Men's Asia Cup Rising Stars 2026, with 28-year-old Abdul Samad appointed captain for the 50-over tournament in Qatar from November 19 to 29.

The headline fixture needs no selling. Defending champions Pakistan Shaheens, drawn in Group B alongside India A, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates, will face India A on Sunday, November 22 at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium in Doha. It is the kind of game that turns a development tournament into a national talking point, and this time Pakistan arrive as the team everyone else is trying to knock off their perch.

The squad in full

The 15 names announced by the PCB are: Abdul Samad (captain), Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Danish Aziz, Farhan Yousuf, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Imran Randhawa, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper), Saad Masood, Shahzaib Khan, Shamyl Hussain and Sufyan Moqim.

It is a deliberately balanced group rather than a collection of big names. Alongside captain Samad, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Haider Ali, Shahzaib Khan, Farhan Yousuf and Shamyl Hussain form a strong batting core, with Rohail Nazir selected as the designated wicketkeeper. The spin department leans on left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Danish Aziz, leg-spinner Saad Masood and Sufyan Moqim, while the pace attack is led by Mohammad Hasnain and includes Ahmed Daniyal, left-arm pacer Akif Javed and Muhammad Imran Randhawa.

Several members of the squad already carry senior international experience, which is exactly what a tournament like this is designed to test. Hasnain, whose ODI debut came back in 2019, brings genuine pace and big-match exposure. Imran Randhawa has appeared for Pakistan in both Test and T20I cricket. Sufyan Moqim earned a place in the senior setup during the Rawalpindi leg of the recent home tri-series. At the other end of the scale, Farhan Yousuf and Shahzaib Khan are yet to earn a senior Pakistan cap, giving the side the healthy mix of proven performers and emerging talent that these tournaments are built for.

Why Abdul Samad got the captaincy

Samad's appointment is a vote of confidence in a player who has already had a taste of the top level without yet nailing down a permanent place. The 28-year-old has played six ODIs for Pakistan, scoring 66 runs at an average of 16.50, with his most recent ODI appearance coming against Australia in June 2026. Those numbers will not frighten anyone on their own, but captaincy at this level is rarely about the loudest statistics. It is about temperament, game awareness and the ability to hold a young dressing room together when a final, or a game against India A, starts to swing.

Samad also offers the selectors something useful: a captain who is still fighting for his own senior future. Every innings he plays in Doha will be judged twice, once as a leader and once as a batter auditioning for higher honours. That dual pressure has broken some players, but it has also sharpened others, and the PCB has clearly decided Samad belongs in the second category.

Rohail Nazir's selection adds leadership depth of a different kind. The squad's only specialist wicketkeeper, Nazir previously captained Pakistan at Under-19 level, so Samad will have an experienced voice behind the stumps. Hasan Nawaz, meanwhile, returns to 50-over cricket after a gap of roughly a year since the home tri-series against England and Sri Lanka, and his recent form in big games, including 96 runs in a losing cause in the Asian Games 2026 final against India, marks him out as one of the batting names to watch.

The fixtures: UAE first, India A second, Nepal last

Date (PKT)	Fixture	Venue
20 November, 11am	Pakistan Shaheens vs UAE	University of Doha for Science and Technology
22 November, 3pm	Pakistan Shaheens vs India A	West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha
24 November, 3pm	Pakistan Shaheens vs Nepal	West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha
26 November, 3pm	1st semi-final	West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha
27 November, 3pm	2nd semi-final	West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha
29 November, 3pm	Final	West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha

The schedule is kind in one respect and brutal in another. Opening against the UAE on November 20 gives the Shaheens a chance to settle, but there is no gentle build-up after that: India A arrive two days later, and the group closes against Nepal. All of the Shaheens' matches apart from the daytime opener will be day-night fixtures, which means dew, changing conditions and second-innings pressure will all be part of the examination.

One small note for fans marking their calendars: while the detailed fixture list published by Cricket World gives the Nepal game as November 24, at least one other outlet lists it as November 25. The UAE and India A dates, November 20 and 22, are consistent across every report, and the semi-finals on November 26 and 27 and the final on November 29 are likewise agreed.

The India A test: Tilak Varma's star-studded side

India A, named by the BCCI on November 2, are not bringing a development side in any shy sense of the word. Tilak Varma captains the team, Rajat Patidar is his deputy, and around them sit Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana and teenage phenomenon Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Prabhsimran Singh and Kumar Kushagra are the wicketkeeping options, and the bowling group includes Shahbaz Ahmed, Vipraj Nigam, Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Prince Yadav and Arshad Khan.

That is a squad loaded with players who have already performed on the IPL stage and, in several cases, for the senior Indian team. For Pakistan's young bowlers, November 22 will be the sternest test of the tournament. Hasnain's pace against Abhishek Sharma's powerplay hitting, and the Shaheens' three spinners against Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh in the middle overs, are the match-ups that could decide not just the group but the psychological edge heading into the knockouts.

There is history here too, and it favours Pakistan. The Shaheens won the last 50-over edition of this competition in Sri Lanka in 2023, beating India A by 128 runs in the final at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium, one of the most emphatic margins in the tournament's history. They also lifted the title in the previous T20 edition, beating Bangladesh A in a dramatic Super Over final. Pakistan finished as runners-up in the tournament's opening two editions in 2013 and 2017 before claiming the title in 2019, and they now hold both the 50-over and T20 Rising Stars titles at the same time.

Group A: the other half of the draw

Group A features Afghanistan A, Bangladesh A, Hong Kong China and Sri Lanka A. Bangladesh A in particular will fancy their chances after reaching last year's T20 final, while Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A both have a habit of producing players who go straight into senior cricket. If Pakistan top Group B, they will most likely meet the Group A runners-up in the semi-finals, with the group winners crossing over. Finishing first, rather than just qualifying, therefore matters, and the India A game could well decide who takes that top spot.

What success in Doha would mean

For the players, this tournament is a shop window. The senior Pakistan team is in a period of transition after the home tri-series triumph over Sri Lanka on October 31, with places up for grabs and the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia now less than a year away. A strong Rising Stars campaign has historically been a fast track: perform in Doha, and a senior call-up stops being a hope and starts being a conversation.

For the PCB, the tournament is a measure of the pipeline. The Shaheens programme exists to answer one question: when the senior team needs a batter, a spinner or a death bowler, is there someone ready? Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat and Sufyan Moqim have already had senior exposure; a title defence in Doha would confirm that the next wave behind them, players like Shahzaib Khan, Farhan Yousuf and Saad Masood, is ready too.

There is also a simpler, more emotional prize. Pakistan versus India, for a trophy, with a title on the line, never needs extra context for fans on either side of the border. The Shaheens beat India A by 128 runs the last time these two met in a 50-over Rising Stars final. India A have arrived in Doha with a squad built to erase that memory. November 22 cannot come soon enough.

Also today: T10 NOC wait continues

In a separate developing story on Tuesday, several Pakistani cricketers selected for the Abu Dhabi T10 League, which runs from November 7 to 20, were still awaiting no-objection certificates from the PCB, according to sources quoted by Geo Super. The players named include Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Naseem Shah, Faheem Ashraf, Sufiyan Muqeem and Abbas Afridi, with franchises reportedly urging them to secure clearances quickly before teams consider replacements. With the tournament starting in four days, that clock is now the most urgent one in Pakistan cricket outside Doha.

Photos: illustrative cricket stadium images from Wikimedia Commons (Gaddafi Stadium during PSL 2026, CC0; Gaddafi Stadium at night, CC BY-SA 4.0) — not photos from the Rising Stars tournament. Sources: Cricket World, CricTracker, Cricket Addictor, SportsTak and Geo Super, November 3, 2026.