T20 World Cup 2022: UAE can lean on insider knowledge from one of their own in Victoria

Immediately after UAE secured qualification for the T20 World Cup earlier this year, coach Robin Singh said he would be scouting out players that would be suited to the challenge of playing in Australia.

The conditions facing the national team in their preliminary round matches in Geelong will likely be vastly different to those they are used to back at home.

In all likelihood, it will be the opposite of the low-bouncing wickets they regular play on in Sharjah and Dubai, as well as in Muscat where they won the Qualifier tournament.

If the tourists did want some local expertise, they need not look far. After all, one of their own has been based in Victoria for years, and his league cricket often includes matches in Geelong.

Shorye Chopra represented UAE at the Under 19 World Cup in 2014, where he was a contemporary of the current senior national team opener Chirag Suri. He left Dubai shortly after to start a computer science degree in Melbourne, and test himself in Australian grade cricket.

“The reasons I left in 2014 were, firstly, because I had just finished high school,” Chopra said. “Tertiary education was what was at the top of my mind. But, secondly, I wanted to understand how good I was at cricket.

“Obviously, playing international cricket in UAE was good, but everyone talks so highly about the level of domestic cricket here in Australia.

“At that point in time, tertiary education in Dubai wasn’t the same standard it is now. With all things in perspective, Melbourne was the right spot for me in terms of cricket and the degree I wanted to study.”

Chopra’s outstanding contribution in UAE’s maiden U19 World Cup campaign was making 69 against a Sri Lanka side captained by Kusal Mendis – who will be up against the