Meet Junaid Siddique, star pacer from Multan who doesn’t play for Pakistan, claims second 5-wicket haul of T20 World Cup 2026, once worked in…

UAE pacer Junaid Siddique became first-ever bowler from his country to claim a five-wicket haul in T20 World Cup history.

India.com at T20 World Cup 2026: Junaid Siddique is a 33-year-old pacer who was born in Multan in Pakistan but isn’t playing for Salman Ali Agha’s side in the T20 World Cup 2026. He is instead turning out for United Arab Emirates and created history on Friday in a Group D match against Canada at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Siddique became the first-ever bowler from UAE to claim a five-wicket haul in the T20 World Cup.

The UAE pacer claimed 5/35 in his 4 overs as Canada were restricted to 150 for 7 after batting first. Harsh Thaker scored a 41-ball 50 while Navneet Dhaliwal scored 34 off 28 balls for the Canadian side.

Siddique opened the gates for UAE by dismissing Yuvraj Samra and Canada skipper Dilpreet Singh Bajwa to reduced them to 19 for 2 in the 4th over. The pacer then came back to dismiss Thaker, Shreyas Movva and completed his maiden T20I five-wicket haul by dismissing Saad Bin Zafar for 5, caught by Haider Ali.

WATCH Junaid Siddique pick up first-ever five-wicket haul for UAE in T20 World Cup HERE…

Junaid Siddique with a milestone moment against Canada in Delhi #T20WorldCup broadcast details https://t.co/NPykWM6SBq pic.twitter.com/BDnuXwClc4
— ICC (@ICC) February 13, 2026

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Siddique became only the third UAE bowler to claim a five-wicket haul in T20I matches after Ahmed Raza against Nepal in 2022 and Zuhaib Zubair against Nigeria in 2025. He had come to UAE with a dream to play cricket in 2014 but had to wait for 5 years – till 2019 – to finally make his debut after a spate of UAE cricketers were caught in a corruption net.

Slowly but surely, Siddique rose through the ranks to become the leader of the UAE bowling attack. Before this T20 World Cup 2026 match, Siddique had claimed 117 wickets in 87 T20I matches at an amazing average of 21.05.

Siddique was a prize commodity in the ILT20 auctions last year, where he emerged as the third-most expensive player – bought for $170,000 by Sharjah Warriors. In two seasons with the Warriorz, he has claimed 16 wickets in 20 matches at an average of 28.

Overall in T20 cricket, Siddique has 122 wickets in 97 matches at an average of 21.97. Siddique was forced to move out of Multan and shift to UAE due to financial troubles of his family. He even worked at a grocery store, packing bags for other people.

“I struggled here for a long time. Sometimes you would eat, sometimes you wouldn’t eat. Sometimes you would have to eat food from the day before. It was very hard. But I worked very hard, and I always believe you have to stay patient,” Siddique is quoted as saying by The National newspaper.

Siddique has ended up this match with the second-best figures by a bowler from Associate nation after Netherlands pacer Ahsan Malik, who had claimed 5/19 vs South Africa in Chattogram in 2014 T20 World Cup.

For all latest updates of T20 World Cup 2026 you can visit: https://www.india.com/icc-mens-t20-world-cup-2026/

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