Pakistan A will meet India A on November 22 in Doha after the Asian Cricket Council released the full fixture list for the Men’s Asia Cup Rising Stars 2026, a tournament that will run from November 19 to 29 and give the region’s emerging players a stage in the 50-over format. The announcement sets up one of the most eagerly awaited matches of the competition early in the group stage, with the two sides drawn together in Group B alongside Nepal and the United Arab Emirates, while Group A brings together Sri Lanka A, Bangladesh A, Afghanistan A and Hong Kong. Eight teams will take part in all, and each side will play the other three teams in its group once before the competition moves into its knockout rounds.
Pakistan A go into the event as the defending champions, having won the 2025 edition, which was also staged in Qatar, and the return to Doha should feel familiar to a squad that already knows the conditions there. Matches will be shared between two venues in the Qatari capital, the West End Park International Cricket Stadium and the University of Doha for Science and Technology Cricket Ground, and the group stage will see two games played on each day from November 19 to 24. The top two teams from each group will move on to the semifinals, which are scheduled for November 26 and 27, before the final is played on November 29.
Pakistan A’s own road through the group stage begins against the UAE on November 20, and the side will then face India A at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium two days later, on November 22, before rounding off its group fixtures against Nepal on November 24. That sequence means the defending champions will have little time to settle, with a testing opening game followed quickly by the marquee clash against their neighbours and a final group match that could decide who reaches the last four. The switch to 50-over cricket marks a clear change from last year’s tournament, which was played in the 20-over format, and it will ask more of the young players in terms of patience, stamina and game awareness across a full day’s play.
The 2026 event is the second to be staged under the Asia Cup Rising Stars name and the eighth in the overall history of the competition when earlier editions held under the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup banner are counted. That continuity matters because the tournament has long served as a bridge between domestic cricket and the senior international game, giving players who have impressed at home a first taste of tournament pressure against their peers from across Asia. For Pakistan A, the defence of the title begins in earnest in Doha, and the November 22 meeting with India A is already shaping up as the fixture that will draw the widest attention, whatever else happens around it.
