United Arab Emirates

The UAE side that beat New Zealand in a T20 international in August 2023 was, formally, still an Associate nation punching above its status — the first Full Member ever to lose to an associate side in the format, and a result that gave the 2019 arrival of Full T20I status weight.

It won them the 1994 ICC Trophy and a place at the 1996 Cricket World Cup regardless. Asian dominance followed in a different decade: four straight ACC Trophy titles from 2000 to 2006.

Rohan Mustafa remains the most capped player the country has fielded, a reference point for a team that otherwise turns over its personnel with each generation of new residents. Muhammad Waseem now captains a side built again around a similar mix — Emirati-raised players alongside those who arrived from elsewhere and stayed long enough to qualify.

The World Cup return came in 2015, nearly twenty years after the first one.

No fixture carries more weight locally than the one against Oman.