Dubai: Defying the sweltering summer heat, the UAE’s under-19 team players have been immersed in intensive training at the ICC Academy preparing for the Asian Cricket Council Premier League tournament in Malaysia later this month.

Grooming them for the challenge are UAE chief cricket coach Aaqib Javed, assistant coach Mohammad Hyder Ali and physiotherapist Sudhaker Chitrala.

Javed, after sweating it out with the players in the nets, even stepping up to bowl himself, told Gulf News: “The good thing about this team is that, for the first time, the Emirates Cricket Board picked a team after a proper selection process.

“They created four teams — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman — and made them play each other. Every team played three games and the best performers got into the team. This is what is needed in the selection of the senior team too as we can see the best of the best players playing against each other. This is the best practice and is not a unique one as everywhere this system is followed.”

Though Javed has confidence in the talented players selected for the under-19 team, he admitted that players turning out for teams like Afghanistan are far ahead.

“I can see a few youngsters who are capable of doing well in Malaysia, but, when compared with the talents in teams like Afghanistan, we are well behind them because the only time our players play cricket is on weekends,” he said.

“If you go and see some of the academies that produce our players, we can see hundreds of them training in one academy on a Friday and Saturday and all that a batsman gets is only ten minutes. There is no fielding concept and, in bowling, most of the players don’t even have proper run-up.

“To have a good team you need to have a good structure. If only you improve your structure then you can improve your game. Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Academy and Desert Cubs Academy are doing well and are being run in a proper way, and I feel other academies should catch up with them.

“We have four to five players from Zayed Academy and the same number from Desert Cubs. So, if you have a good structure, then the result will also be better.”

Talking about his team’s strengths, Javed added: “We have a decent batsman in captain Waruna Perera, who has improved a lot recently. Ethan Holmes from South Africa has been doing well as a batsman and Kulith Rabel is also a good bat.

“We also have vice-captain Yodhin Punja, who will be our leading bowler and he is a very good talent. Ahsan Ali Khan can swing the ball both ways. We also have decent spin options in Naseer-ud-Din as a leg spinner — he is a young guy but has a lot of variety.

“Moiz Ayub Qazi is a decent all-rounder who can bat well and bowl off-spin. Left-arm spinner Atharva Kavi is very accurate. So, in short, we have some good fast bowling options, two to three spinners and three genuinely good batsmen.”

When asked which teams will pose a big challenge, Javed said: “I recently saw the Afghanistan team and their players are very big and strong. Nepal and Afghanistan have cricketers that play the whole week and these two teams can be the biggest challenge.”

So does Javed reckon that the future stars of the UAE national team are in the youth squad? “They can be the future stars for the UAE only if they continue to live in the UAE. Only two boys have stayed back from the last under-19 team that played in the Under-19 World Cup and that is a problem.”