ABU DHABI // Mohammed Usman is confident he can play a match-winning role for UAE in the Desert T20, despite missing the past week of training due to compassionate leave.
The middle-order batsman returned from Pakistan in the early hours of Saturday morning, having spent six days there to be with his sick mother.
When she was discharged from hospital, he immediately flew back from Lahore to Dubai, and rejoined the national team on the eve of their first match, against Namibia in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
“I was doing some practice over there, it was only the practice matches I missed, and I am confident I can do well,” Usman, 31, said.
The left-hander has shown glimpses of class since debuting for the national team last year. As has been typical of the troubled recent past of UAE batting, though, he has yet to be a consistent match-winner with the willow.
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He says the Desert T20, a new competition involving eight leading Associate teams, is the perfect time to start proving his worth.
“The team need some innings from me,” said Usman, who first moved to the UAE for work to help ease “final issues” his family were suffering.
“It is about time I played some important innings, because I haven’t shown my best for the UAE yet. My family and friends are very proud of me for playing for UAE, and I want to do well for the country.”
The past 18 months have been tough for the national team. Despite the consistent excellence of bowlers like Ahmed Raza, Amjad Javed and Mohammed Naveed, results have faltered because of a misfiring batting line up.
The listless form at the batting crease has coincided with the retirement of Khurram Khan, the UAE’s most successful batsman ever.
Now part of the selection panel, Khurram gave a speech to the side in the lead in to this competition. According to Amjad, the captain, the attitude of the batsmen has been altered for the better since the former captain gave his address.
“He told them, ‘You have talent,’ and after that speech I have seen some changes,” Amjad said. “We won two games, and we are really ready for Namibia. Our top six batsmen are really dangerous. If two of them click, we can definitely make 160-plus.”
The national team are in a tough pool in the Desert T20. Top-ranked Afghanistan have swept all before them in this format among their Associate peers, and even beat eventual champions West Indies at the World T20 last year.
Ireland and Namibia will likely provide formidable opposition, too, but Owais Shah, the interim UAE coach, believes his side are up to the challenge.
“It is a tough group, and we have lost a lot of players from the past, guys who played in the World Cup, but there are new guys coming through,” Shah said.
“It will be a good challenge for these guys to play some tough cricket in a competition, and that is international cricket. There are no easy groups in Associate cricket.
“They are excited about trying to display their talent and show the work they have been putting in leading into this tournament. We have to get the results going our way.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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