WI Women to Play First T20 Game in UAE in October’s World Cup

The West Indies women’s team will play their first ever T20 game in the United Arab Emirates when they play in the World Cup in October.

The West Indies will be one of only four teams who have never played a T20 game in the UAE before, the others being Champions Australia, India and England.

The revised schedule released today will have Australia opening their defense against Sri Lanka on October 5 with India facing New Zealand in Dubai a day earlier.

For the first time, ever the 10-team event that has had to be moved out of Bangladesh owing to country-wide agitations that led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led regime earlier this month.

In the updated fixture matches will split equally across Dubai and Sharjah for the group stages. Australia will play three of their four group fixtures in Sharjah, while India play three games in Dubai.

India have been drawn to play Pakistan in an afternoon game on October 6 in Dubai, while South Africa, finalists of 2022, and England will play their heavyweight Group B clash the following day in Sharjah. The marquee India vs Australia fixture, a rematch of the 2022 semi-final, is slated to be held on October 13 in Sharjah.

Dubai is slated to host the first semi-final, which is also the one allotted to India should they qualify, on October 17, while Sharjah hosts the second semi-final on October 18. Dubai will host the tournament finale on October 20. Both semi-finals and the final have been allotted a reserve day, unlike at the men’s T20 World Cup in June where the semi-final involving India wasn’t allotted a reserve day.

Interestingly, Dubai hasn’t hosted a single women’s T20I. All teams, however, will play two warm-up fixtures each from September 28 to October 3 to acclimatise.

Each side will play four group matches, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the semi-finals. Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are in Group A, while South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh and Scotland constitute Group B. The afternoon games will begin at 2pm local time, while the evening games, semi-finals and final included, will begin at 6pm.