Dream comes true for 21-year-old Faraazuddin as he makes UAE cricket team
Off-spinner says tips from Gayle and Livingstone help him adapt to various formats
Dubai: For 21-year-old Mohammad Faraazuddin it is a dream come true after he has been selected as part of the 22-player UAE team for the three match One Day Internationals against West Indies, beginning in Sharjah on June 4.
The prime reason for the all-rounder’s inclusion in UAE squad is due to his impressive performance in the recently concluded Emirates D50 tournament for title winners Fujairah, who defeated Ajman by 53 runs in the final.
Allround show
Faraazuddin finished the tournament with a 10-wicket haul, that included a match-winning spell of six wickets against Sharjah in the semi-finals. He also scored 200 runs in the tournament for Fujairah, led by UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem.
“I am very happy to be part of the UAE team. I feel my performance in the D50 enabled me to get a spot in the squad,” Faraazuddin told Gulf News after being named in the 22-player squad under Muhammad Waseem.
Right guidance
The off-spinner has played all three — T10, Twenty20 and the 50-over — formats and knows how to adapt based on the situations. He was also lucky to get the right guidance from one of world’s best whiteball specialist Chris Gayle and England all-rounder Liam Livingstone.
“You have to adapt to the situation, so I try to bowl differently in different conditions and it has helped me to be successful in whichever format I’ve been playing. I played in the T10 as well, which taught me how to stop conceding runs. Playing with the likes of Gayle and Livingstone helped me to get the right guidance on how play in different formats,” added the BBA graduate from International College of Law and BBA.
Faraazuddin is one of the many home-grown talents in the current UAE senior squad and had also represented UAE Under-19 under Aryan Lakra and the current UAE senior squad have five players from that squad including Vriitya Aravind, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Ansh Tandon and Sanchit Sharma.
Process is important
Wrist spinners are preferred over the finger spinners in whiteball formats currently, but Faraazuddin feels he still has a role to play as an off-spinner, irrespective of the format. And to achieve the success he trains three hours in the morning and another three hours in the evening to hone his skills while hitting the gym in between the two sessions.
“The approach is the same. It is simple for me to bowl more dotballs and that eventually helps to take wickets because if you follow the process, the results will come automatically,” he said.
“Off-spinners do not get as many overs as the wrist spinners do, but obviously the bonus is one wicket or two wickets if you are bowling four or five overs. So in the 50-over format too I try to bowl as many dotballs as possible, which in turn will get me the wicket as well,” he concluded.