Dubai: With a strong self-belief and temperament, the UAE cricket team take on Scotland at Ayr in the four-day International Cricket Council (ICC) Intercontinental Cup from Tuesday.
After a hard training session, UAE skipper Amjad Javed told Gulf News: “Self-belief and temperament will be the key to our performance. Our team has worked very hard for this tour and all the players are in good form.”
Javed, who produced a seven-wicket spell in a practice game against a Hampshire XI, knows that to beat Scotland in conditions alien to their players, everyone will need to exhibit excellent match temperament.
“The practice games in Southampton before coming to Scotland have done a lot of good to my players,” said Javed.
This four-day first-class tournament is a pathway to Test cricket with the winning side getting an opportunity to play the 10th-ranked Test side in the ICC Test Challenge in 2018 and then acquiring Test status until the next event in 2022, provided it wins the challenge.
UAE are playing in the fourth round of this tournament with the team having lost all three previous matches. The team has now been revamped with a few players being given contracts and are under a new coach in Paul Franks.
UAE has a strong spin attack and will try to exploit the weakness of Scotland in playing spin.
“We have two excellent spinners with us in Ahmad Raza and Fayaz Ahmad. Both have worked hard in sharpening their skill and they also have the experience to exploit the wicket,” added Javed.
Left-arm spinner Raza, speaking to Gulf News after bowling a long spell in the nets yesterday, said: “The wicket should be helpful for spin too as the weather isn’t great and the wicket maybe a bit damp and that should assist spin. The sun has hardly been out so I also presume that the wicket maybe a bit underprepared too.” Raza has bagged 14 wickets from two matches in this tournament.
All eyes will once again be on UAE star batsman Shaiman Anwar, who hit a century in the practice match against Hampshire and has scored 239 runs from the six innings of this tournament for an average of under 40.
This will be Frank’s first match as UAE coach and his team has three uncapped players in Krishnachandran Karat, Mohammad Usman and Mohammad Qasim.
Teams:
Scotland: Preston Mommsen (captain), Kyle Coetzer (vice-captain), Richie Berrington, Josh Davey, Con de Lange, Alasdair Evans, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, David Murphy, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Craig Wallace and Mark Watt.
UAE: Amjad Javed (captain), Shaiman Anwar (vice-captain), Ahmed Raza, Fayyaz Ahmad, Laxman Sreekumar, Krishnachandran Karat, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Rohan Mustafa, Saqlain Haider and Youdhin Punja.
