Afghanistan is no more a weak team rather it's as strong as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh teams are. Pakistan had to work hard to win matches against Afghanistan and that's mainly because Pakistan is new side without experienced players while Afghanistan has players that are playing for quite a while now. Also it's a good opportunity for UAE to improve their game as they have to face two good teams of T20 format.
Anyway, it is good to see associate nations getting opportunities to play against full member nations (especially outside the multi-nation tournaments such as Asia Cup). United Arab Emirates is playing in a tri-series along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, while tomorrow Bangladesh is scheduled to participate in a 3-match T20I series against the Netherlands. Next month, Nepal has a T20I series scheduled against West Indies. And in October, South Africa will play against Namibia at Windhoek. Overall, a busy season for the associates.