Gulf Giants Squad, ILT20 Results, Stats & History

Gulf Giants are Adani Sportsline's United Arab Emirates cricket franchise in the International League T20. Their falcon identity pays tribute to the UAE, and the team is a global extension of the wider Giants sports brand.

The Giants won the inaugural ILT20 in 2023 under captain James Vince and head coach Andy Flower. They finished first in the league stage, recovered from a Qualifier 1 defeat and beat Desert Vipers by seven wickets in the final.

Season 4 began with three wins from four matches but ended with six consecutive defeats. Gulf finished fifth with three wins, seven losses, six points and a -0.310 net run rate, missing the four-team playoffs.

Moeen Ali led the 2025-26 batting with 251 runs, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 245 and replacement Pathum Nissanka made 243. Azmatullah Omarzai contributed 233 runs and a team-high 12 wickets, the clearest two-skill season return.

Jonathan Trott coached the completed 2025–26 Season 4 campaign, when Gulf finished fifth at 3–7. Simon Helmot was appointed on 15 May 2026 for Season 5 and should not be credited with those ten earlier results.

Season 5 is scheduled for 22 November to 20 December 2026. The tournament window and coaching appointment are current, but the page does not invent Gulf's opponent-by-opponent schedule while it remains unpublished.

The staff list therefore carries two dated head-coach rows. That preserves the completed season's accountability while still answering the current-coach question accurately.

Both teams made 179 in regulation, so the main innings were tied. Desert Vipers then scored 13/1 in the competition's first Super Over, while Gulf reached 9/0 and lost the decider by four runs.

The official match result is therefore a Desert Vipers win, not a no-result or shared point. It belongs in Gulf's loss column even though the regulation score line alone appears level.

Pathum Nissanka was unavailable for the Super Over after injury, while Moeen Ali and Tom Moores chased for Gulf. That selection detail explains the decider without changing the 179–179 regulation record.

The live Gulf Giants directory contains 24 players, but it no longer lists Season 4 replacements Pathum Nissanka and Nuwan Thushara. Their omission from the current directory does not erase their completed-season appearances.

Nissanka scored 243 runs in six matches, including 81 in the opener, and Thushara appeared in completed scorecards including the Super Over. Those results and statistics stay in the Season 4 record while the squad grid follows the current official directory.

A current roster and a historical campaign ledger serve different purposes. Merging them would either inflate the live directory or wrongly remove contributions recorded during the completed season.

Match 23 against Dubai Capitals was originally scheduled for Sharjah on 21 December, but ILT20 moved it to Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The completed venue must follow the relocation notice and match record, not the original fixture list.

That correction produces six Gulf matches in Dubai, one in Sharjah and three in Abu Dhabi. It also means the news label 'in Sharjah' and the earlier 6–2–2 split were stale schedule artifacts.

None of the three grounds is an exclusive Gulf home. ILT20's centralised venue model is why a franchise can have a primary season venue without owning a conventional home schedule.

No. Gulf's completed scorecards show two defeats to Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: by four wickets on 18 December and by 32 runs on 28 December. Their three wins came against MI Emirates, Dubai Capitals and Sharjah Warriorz.

The current Gulf About page says Season 4 included a memorable victory over Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, which conflicts with the match-by-match record. This page follows the completed scorecards and 3–7 table rather than repeating that summary line.

The distinction matters because changing one loss to a win would create a 4–6 record that no longer matches the official six-point table. Cross-checking summary copy against results prevents that silent inconsistency.