Sabir Ali shines amid the gloom of UAE tour to Scotland

The UAE headed to Aberdeen for their Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series hoping for the best, but it must have been difficult to guard against fearing the worst.

The scars of past tours to Scotland are many. Across T20 and one-day internationals, the national team have now played eight matches in the country, and lost them all.

They remain winless after three matches of their current tour, with just Tuesday’s final fixture against United States to play.

So insipid has this trip been, they have had nearly as many concussion checks for batters – CP Rizwan twice, and Aryan Lakra – as they have half-centuries – Lakra, Rohan Mustafa, and Vriitya Aravind twice.

And yet the tour has not been a complete dead loss. At least it has brought with it the emergence of two promising debutants.

Lakra made 84 after opening the batting on his bow in international cricket against the United States at Mannofield.

Sabir Ali’s introduction to the international game was less spectacular. Judged by his shy demeanour, it seems like the left-arm fast bowler might prefer it that way.

The Lahore-born bowler took the prized wicket of Kyle Coetzer, the former Scotland captain, on debut against the host team last week.

He finished his day with 2-50. He has slipped back out of the XI since, due to the return to fitness of Junaid Siddique, but his captain and coach were encouraged by what they saw.

Sabir has timed his arrival in international cricket at an exciting time, with UAE potentially set to participate in both the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup over the coming months.

The UAE's Aryan Lakra takes on a short ball from Scotland fast bowler Chris Sole in the Tri-Nations Series match at Mannofield Park, Aberdeen, on August 14, 2022. All pictures