UAE’s national cricket team will begin a new era under former Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan by embarking on their maiden tour of Kenya on Thursday night to play a series of four one-day matches in Mombasa.
Led by veteran all-rounder Mohammed Tauqir for this African adventure, UAE are aiming to use this tour as preparation for December’s Intercontinental Cup Shield final against Namibia which will be held in Dubai.
“The boys are excited and relishing the challenge,” skipper Tauqir told Emirates 24|7 before their departure.
“We would like to play tough cricket and give our 100 per cent,” he said.
They will be up against a side who won a home one-day series against Afghanistan in their build up to prepare for next year’s World Cup.
“It has been low scoring matches there so we don’t know what conditions to expect. We hope to benefit from this learning experience and are determined to give a good account of ourselves,” said off spinner Tauqir.
Coach Kabir Khan is expected to transit in Dubai to travel with the UAE team which had a few decent training sessions under assistant coach Shah Hussain. “Most of the players have work and family commitments but despite our limitations we put in some good training sessions,” said Tauqir.
UAE have recalled all-rounder Rohan Mustafa to the side which consists of experienced campaigners like Arshad Ali and Saqib Ali.
A left hand batsman and right arm off spinner, Mustafa, 22, returns after two years following good performances in the domestic competition. He won the Best Bowler award at the Al Dhaid T20 Ramadan tournament representing Phoenix Medicines for his haul of 13 wickets and also grabbed 11 wickets in four matches in the Sharjah Ramadan tournament.
UAE will hope batsman such as the in-form Swapnil Patel and Amjad Ali deliver on the tour since they will be missing the services of Khurram Khan.
UAE squad: Mohammed Tauqir (captain), Arshad Ali, Saqib Ali, Amjad Javed, Ahmed Raza, Shadeep Silva, Amjad Ali, Salman Farooq, Qasim Zubair, Shoaib Sarwar, Arfan Haider. Tahir Javaid Butt, Swapnil Patil, Rohan Mustafa, Irfan Ansari (Manager), Kabir Khan (Coach), C. Sudhaker (Physio)
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