(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Chinthana Wasala / The Peninsula
Qatar will be looking to excel in front of home crowd and get their FIBA 2019 World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers off to a flying start when they take on Kazakhstan at Ali bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena today.
The Group D fixture kicks off at 6.00pm.
Al Annabi, under the guidance of their newly appointed head coach Tim Lewis, will compete against Kazakhstan, Iran and Iraq in the group.
The Qatari outfit is equipped with a host of star players, including one of the brightest young stars in Asia, Abdulrahman Saad. The 21-year-old guard has already made an impact, having led the national team with 20 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game at the Asia Cup. He has been under the radar of opponents since he entered the fray during the FIBA U18 Asia Championship 2014.
Al Rayyan's Mohamed Hassan Mohamed, also known as Mizo Amin, who was the top scorer at last year's FIBA Asia Challenge in Tehran, is another player who is expected to shine for Al Annabi today.
Al Annabi also boasts of having ex-NBA stars in their ranks. Former Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers star Tanguy Ngombo and Clinton Johnson who has played for Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers will also be among the players their opponents will watch out for. Impressive performances can be expected from players such as Yehia Abdelhaleem, Khalid Suliman Abdi, Abdulrahim Ashraf Abu Issa, Faisal Nabil Abu Issa, Mansour El Hadary, Yassin Mahdi Taha, Abdulrahman Saad and Ahmad Al Darwish as the former Arab champions will be no easy kill for the visitors.
Al Annabi players have been undergoing intensified training under the watchful eyes of their British coach at the Al Gharafa SC indoor courts over the past few days with the aim of sharpening their skills ahead of the key matches.
The 50-year-old Briton, Lewis who has had stints in the USA, Egypt, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines, said he was impressed with the skills of the players.
'The team is an exciting group and you have a good mix of the old and the young. We have got a couple of injuries, which is a bit of a setback at the moment. Hopefully, they will come through it soon. We just had the first session and the players responded well, Coach Lewis was quoted as saying during an interview with the Qatar Basketball Federation's official web site.
In their next match of the qualification stage, Qatar will shake hands with mighty Asian runners-up Iran in Tehran on Monday.
'Our main aim will be to play well. We will try and push Iran and other two teams, but whether we are ready to do that yet, only time can tell. It is too early for us to sort of say where we are and what we can do. We are approaching it the right way and the players need to commit to what we can do, Lewis has said during an interview recently.
Qatar's first round campaign in the tournament, played on a home-away format, will end in February, 2018 with a game against Iraq.
The World Cup qualification of the Asia Zone will determine the six teams from FIBA Asia and/or FIBA Oceania that will participate at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
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