Abu Dhabi: UAE’s current batting woes is turning out be a matter of grave concern for coach Aaquib Javed ahead of their T20 Asia Cup qualifiers, to be held in Bangladesh this week.

UAE lost the first of the two preparatory friendlies lined up against Ireland at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium on Sunday by 34 runs. What followed after restricting the visitors to a modest total of 134 for eight in 20 overs was a spineless batting display.

“We played good cricket in the first 18 overs and in the last two overs, they got 30. Two bad overs and we let them get away from 105 for eight after 18 overs. Fifteen runs less and it would have been a different picture,” said a dejected Javed, adding that the batsmen have let the team down repeatedly. “It is just not happening for our batsmen. Apart from Shaiman (Anwar), none of the batsmen have come out and performed. We need to find out what’s going wrong. Some of them look like they still need some time and they can’t keep their nerves,” said Javed, who felt that the level was still too high for some of the newcomers who have been drafted in.

Javed has continued to experiment with his squad and Ahmed Raza, who led UAE in the Intercontinental Cup four-day match and two 50-over matches against Netherlands, was sidelined against Ireland.

Taking charge of the team was 35-year-old veteran all-rounder Amjad Javed, who will be the skipper for the Asia Cup qualifiers. Explaining the reason behind the move, the coach said: “The switch from Raza to Javed in T20s is because I felt that he will be more effective player in T20. Now a days we can’t make one captain for all format because it is not easy for a captain to absorb all the pressure and also perform. Two captains help to share that load and can focus on different roles,” said Javed, who has now been with the team for four years.

Ireland, after being put into bat, lost their top four batsmen with just 19 on board. However, the O’Brien brothers - Niall and Kevin resurrected the innings with scores of 38 and 23, respectively. Another valuable contribution of 26 came from Max Sorensen. The ninth wicket pair of Tim Murtagh (12 not out) and Boyd Rankin ( 16 not out) hammered 20 runs in the last over from Ahmad Javed, who finished with figures of three for 41, to see Ireland to a competitive total.

In the T20 Asia Cup qualifiers, UAE will be meeting Afghanistan on February 19 before taking on Hong Kong and Oman on February 21 and 22, respectively. “Hong Kong and Oman are not far away from where UAE is. Oman is recently doing well because they have now got a few good players. Teams like ours and Oman rely heavily on expats. So whoever gets better expats in the side will do well and have a better team. So let’s see how it goes for us in Bangladesh,” said Javed, whose team play Ireland again on Tuesday.

Brief Scores: Ireland beat UAE by 34 runs. Ireland 134/8 in 20 overs (Niall O’ Brien 38, Kevin O’Brien 23; Ahmad Javed 3 for 41) United Arab Emirates 100 all out in 19.2 overs (Shaiman Anwar 24, Kevin O’Brien 3 for 14, Tim Murtagh 2 for 20, Boyd Rankin 2 for 16, Craig Young 2 for 26).