Ashwanth Valthapa’s ‘emotional’ debut provides some cheer for UAE amid gloom in Nepal

When Karthik Meiyappan twisted his ankle in training just before UAE flew to Nepal for a bilateral one-day series last November, it had a couple of notable effects.

The injury led him to miss that tour, meaning the chance to embellish the reputation he had just created for himself in such luminous terms by taking a hat-trick against Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup would have to wait.

It had a knock-on consequence for one of his closest pals, too, who was looking to follow the leg-spinner’s lead in representing UAE cricket with distinction.

Ashwanth Valthapa had been picked as part of a UAE senior squad for the first time back then. It had been his long-cherished hope that, if he did one day debut for the national team, it would be his mate who presented him with his cap.

Good things come to those who wait. Valthapa was eventually an unused reserve on that tour. Four months later, they are both back as part of the tour party in Kathmandu for the Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series.

In the second match of the series, against Nepal on Sunday, Valthapa did get to debut – and his bestie was on hand to do the needful.

“It was 50-50 overnight and I wasn’t sure it was going to happen,” Valthapa, 21, said. “In the warmups they told me I was going to play and I felt really good.

"To have Karthik and Vriitya [Aravind, another former teammate from UAE’s Under 19 side] around when I made my debut, it felt comfortable inside. It didn’t feel like something new.

“He gave me the cap, which meant even more. I wanted to receive my cap from him which is why I was sad [that Meiyappan was absent on his previous tour]. It just meant I had to wait for him to come back.”

Meiyappan also passed on some of the wisdom he inherited when he made