The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier was a tournament that was played as part of qualification process for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in October 2021. In April 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) granted full international status to Twenty20 men's matches played between member sides from 1 January 2019 onwards. Therefore, all the matches in the Regional Qualifiers were played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). The Asia Qualifier consisted of two sub-regional groups, A and B, with the groups being played in Qatar and Malaysia respectively. The winners of each sub-regional group progressed to one of two global qualifiers. On 2 September 2021, the ICC announced that Group A had been moved from Kuwait to Qatar.
Originally, the qualifiers were scheduled to be played between March and September 2020. However, on 24 March 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that all ICC qualifying events scheduled to take place before 30 June 2020 had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, the ICC updated the qualification pathway following the disruption from the pandemic. In March 2021, the Group A qualifier was postponed again, and was moved back to October 2021. In May 2021, the Group B qualifier was postponed to November 2021 due to the pandemic. However, in October 2021, the ICC cancelled the Group B tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Hong Kong progressing to the next stage as the highest-ranked team. Bahrain won Group A to progress to the Global Qualifiers, finishing just ahead of Qatar on net run rate.
Group A
Cricket tournament| Dates | 23 – 29 October 2021 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | Asian Cricket Council |
| Cricket format | T20I |
| Host(s) |  Qatar |
| Champions |  Bahrain |
| Runners-up | Qatar |
| Participants | 5 |
| Matches | 10 |
| Player of the series |  Mohammed Aslam |
| Most runs | Muhammad Younis (159) Sarfaraz Ali (159) |
| Most wickets | Mohammed Aslam (9) |
| ← 20182023 → | |
Squads
The following teams and squads were named for the tournament:
| Bahrain
|
Kuwait
|
 Maldives
|
Qatar
|
 Saudi Arabia
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Points table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bahrain
|
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1.662 |
| 2 | Qatar
|
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1.569 |
| 3 | Kuwait
|
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0.899 |
| 4 | Saudi Arabia
|
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0.303 |
| 5 | Maldives
|
4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | −4.088 |
Advanced to the Global qualifier
Fixtures
| 23 October 2021 09:00 Scorecard |
| Qatar 133/5 (20 overs) |
v | Bahrain 134/2 (13.1 overs) |
| Zaheer Ibrahim 33* (22) Abdul Majid 2/23 (4 overs) |
Muhammad Younis 82* (44) Muhammad Tanveer 1/20 (4 overs) |
| Bahrain won by 8 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Muhammad Younis (Bhr) |
- Bahrain won the toss and elected to field.
- Andri Berenger, Muhammad Murad (Qat), Waseeq Ahmed and Haider Butt (Bhr) all made their T20I debuts.
| 23 October 2021 13:10 Scorecard |
| Maldives 98/9 (20 overs) |
v | Saudi Arabia 101/3 (15.1 overs) |
| Ibrahim Nashath 20* (50) Imran Yousaf 1/6 (3 overs) |
Faisal Khan 41 (24) Umar Adam 2/13 (4 overs) |
| Saudi Arabia won by 7 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Shivani Mishra (Qat) Player of the match: Faisal Khan (Sau) |
- Maldives won the toss and elected to bat.
- Ishtiaq Ahmad, Imran Arif, Amir Shahzad, Hisham Sheikh and Zain Ul Abidin (Sau) all made their T20I debuts.
| 24 October 2021 09:00 Scorecard |
| Bahrain 124/8 (20 overs) |
v | Kuwait 129/4 (11.3 overs) |
| Sarfaraz Ali 28 (12) Mohammed Aslam 3/13 (4 overs) |
Ravija Sandaruwan 49 (31) Junaid Aziz 2/4 (1 over) |
| Kuwait won by 6 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Shivani Mishra (Qat) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Mohammed Aslam (Kuw) |
- Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.
- Edson Silva (Kuw) made his T20I debut.
| 24 October 2021 13:10 Scorecard |
| Qatar 154/6 (20 overs) |
v | Maldives 56 (18.5 overs) |
| Mohammed Rizlan 62 (46) Umar Adam 3/31 (4 overs) |
Ahmed Hassan 18 (28) Mohammed Nadeem 4/10 (4 overs) |
| Qatar won by 98 runs West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Mohammed Rizlan (Qat) |
- Maldives won the toss and elected to field.
| 25 October 2021 09:00 Scorecard |
| Kuwait 146/8 (20 overs) |
v | Saudi Arabia 149/6 (19 overs) |
| Mohammed Aslam 55 (41) Imran Arif 2/14 (4 overs) |
Sajid Cheema 52 (30) Mohammed Aslam 3/38 (4 overs) |
| Saudi Arabia won by 4 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Sajid Cheema (Sau) |
- Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to field.
- Usman Khalid (Sau) made his T20I debut.
| 27 October 2021 09:00 Scorecard |
| Maldives 88/9 (20 overs) |
v | Bahrain 93/3 (7 overs) |
| Umar Adam 31 (22) Waseeq Ahmed 3/14 (4 overs) |
Muhammad Younis 31 (13) Ibrahim Hassan 2/39 (3 overs) |
| Bahrain won by 7 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Shivani Mishra (Qat) Player of the match: Anasim Khan (Bhr) |
- Bahrain won the toss and elected to field.
- Prashant Kurup (Bhr) made his T20I debut.
| 27 October 2021 13:10 Scorecard |
| Saudi Arabia 130/9 (20 overs) |
v | Qatar 134/5 (19.4 overs) |
| Faisal Khan 42 (29) Muhammad Murad 3/17 (3 overs) |
Imal Liyanage 44 (45) Imran Arif 1/12 (4 overs) |
| Qatar won by 5 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Imal Liyanage (Qat) |
- Qatar won the toss and elected to field.
| 28 October 2021 09:00 Scorecard |
| Maldives 103 (20 overs) |
v | Kuwait 107/5 (12 overs) |
| Ahmed Hassan 42 (38) Adnan Idrees 3/17 (4 overs) |
Edson Silva 58 (29) Mohamed Mahfooz 2/14 (2 overs) |
| Kuwait won by 5 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Shivani Mishra (Qat) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Edson Silva (Kuw) |
- Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.
| 28 October 2021 13:10 Scorecard |
| Bahrain 179/9 (20 overs) |
v | Saudi Arabia 161/6 (20 overs) |
| Sarfaraz Ali 67 (45) Abdul Wahid 2/25 (4 overs) |
Abdul Wahid 72* (40) Anasim Khan 2/22 (4 overs) |
| Bahrain won by 18 runs West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Shivani Mishra (Qat) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Sarfaraz Ali (Bhr) |
- Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to field.
| 29 October 2021 13:10 Scorecard |
| Kuwait 126/9 (20 overs) |
v | Qatar 127/8 (11.5 overs) |
| Meet Bhavsar 25 (17) Musawar Shah 3/18 (4 overs) |
Andri Berenger 37 (16) Shiraz Khan 3/33 (3 overs) |
| Qatar won by 2 wickets West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Musawar Shah (Qat) |
- Kuwait won the toss and elected to bat.
Group B
Cricket tournament| Dates | 9 – 15 November 2021 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | Asian Cricket Council |
| Cricket format | Twenty20 International |
| Host(s) |  Malaysia |
| Participants | 6 |
For the original schedule, Singapore were placed in Group B. However, when the revised schedule was published by the ICC, Singapore had been promoted to the Global Qualifier at the expense of Hong Kong, due to a recalculation of the T20I team rankings. On 11 October 2021, the ICC cancelled the Group B tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Hong Kong progressing to the next stage as the highest-ranked team.
The following teams were scheduled to compete in Group B:
References
- "Qualification to Men's T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia confirmed". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- "Qatar set to host ICC qualifying event for the first time as part of road to Australia 2022". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- "All T20I matches to get international status". International Cricket Council. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- "ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 qualification process confirmed". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
- "Qatar to host Western Asia qualifiers in October". Czarsportz. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
- "Qatar set to host the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia A Qualifier - 19th-30th October". Kuwait Cricket Official (via Facebook). Retrieved 2 September 2021.
- "Qatar to host T20 World Cup qualifiers". Gulf-Times (in Arabic). 22 October 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- "QATAR SET FOR WESTERN REGION ASIA QUALIFIERS". 22 October 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022 – via PressReader.
- "ICC expands qualifiers for 2021 T20 World Cup to 16 teams". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
- "COVID-19 update – ICC qualifying events". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
- "2022 T20 World Cup qualification pathway". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- "Men's T20 World Cup 2022 Regional Qualifiers postponed". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
- "Three men's T20 World Cup 2022 qualifying events called off because of Covid-19". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
- "Three ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 European Qualifiers cancelled due to COVID-19". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
- "Asia B Qualifier to Men's T20 World Cup 2022 cancelled". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- "T20 World Cup qualifiers: Bahrain win Group A title race on NRR". The Peninsula Qatar. 30 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
- "Kuwait Cricket announce Men's squad for T20 World Cup Asia qualifiers". Czarsportz. October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
- "Maldives cricket announces squad for T20 world cup Asia qualifier". Czarsportz. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
- "Qatar to host T20 World Cup qualifiers". Gulf Times. 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- "Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation names 14-player squad for 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier in Qatar". Arab News. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- "ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia A Qualifier 2021 Table". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- "Singapore promoted to global qualifier for 2022 T20 World Cup". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- "Hong Kong progress after cancellation of Asia B Qualifier for 2022 men's T20 World Cup". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
External links
| 2022 Men's T20 World Cup | |
|---|---|
| Stages | |
| Qualifiers | |
| General information | |