The Indian-Pakistani flavour at the heart of UAE cricket

Junaid Siddique hails from Multan in Pakistan, and came to the UAE in 2014. But it wasn't until a corruption scandal in UAE cricket, which led to bans of several players, that Siddique got a chance to play for the national team in October 2019. Over the past six years, Siddique has slowly emerged to becoming the leader of UAE's pace attack.

Two nights after starring with a four-wicket haul in UAE's win over Oman, Siddique raised thoughts of an upset of Pakistan. He dismissed openers Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan in his first two overs, before returning later in the innings to polish off the lower order, ending with figures of 4-0-18-0.

At the other end, Simranjeet Singh, who hails from Ludhiana in India, stemmed the flow of runs and built up pressure through the middle overs. Among his victims was Fakhar Zaman, soon after he got to a half-century.

From bowling to a young Shubman Gill at the Punjab age-group nets, Simranjeet's cricket journey took an unexpected twist when he got stuck in the UAE during the Covid-19 lockdown. It was to start an unusual but memorable journey that has now taken him to the UAE team at 35. On Wednesday, he returned figures of 3 for 26.

In a hugely volatile situation involving India and Pakistan, Siddique and Simranjeet are examples of players who have not let geopolitical tensions come in the way of their cricket, and performing together for UAE.

Despite improved focus towards developing home-grown talent, UAE are very much a multicultural group of players, largely from the subcontinent. Their captain Muhammad Waseem, born in Pakistan, is himself a beneficiary of support from a Hyderabad-based entrepreneur who helped him land a job and helped facilitate his cricketing journey when he arrived in Dubai more than a decade ago.

It was, therefore, only natural that Waseem expressed the kind of sentiment he did when asked about the tensions between India and Pakistan during the Asia Cup.

"All these situations are only in India and Pakistan. There are no such situations in the UAE, whether it is in daily life, whether it is in cricket, or in our friendship," he said. "We live like a family away from cricket, and in cricket matches too. We have played a lot of cricket with each other."

Asked if it ever came in the way of their camaraderie, he said, "No, we weren't talking of that [politics]. We've played too much cricket with each other. There's no Indian or Pakistani [sentiment]. We are playing for the UAE. We play as a family, and live as a family."

Waseem, who has formed a fearsome opening combination with Kerala-born Alishan Sharafu, one of UAE's emerging young batters, was full of praise for Siddique's skills as he looked back at a game that could have panned out differently had UAE batted better in their chase of 147.

"Junaid is our main bowler. Our most senior bowler in the team," Waseem said. "He was exceptional today. In the last game also, he was superb. I'm very happy with our bowling. Especially the way we've bowled and learnt. Junaid, Simranjeet, [Muhammad] Rohid - all of them are doing a great job and I'm sure it'll help us in the upcoming games."

Asked to pick out a turning point in the game against Pakistan, Waseem looked back at the three wickets lost inside the powerplay. "We ended up losing wickets in clusters," he said. "Even after losing three wickets, we got a partnership going [between Rahul Chopra and Dhruv Parashar]. It felt until the 14-15-over mark that we could win, but we lost too many wickets."

Over the past few weeks, UAE have had seven straight games against top sides, a rarity in an era of lopsided fixtures where they have often had to make do with having to play fellow Associates. This, Waseem felt, gave them fresh perspective and clarity on how to approach their cricket.

"We've learnt a lot playing India, Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said. "We've learnt to handle pressure. Like today, we lost three wickets in the powerplay, but even after that, the boys built a partnership.

"In the tri-series, the first game against Pakistan, or against Afghanistan, we came close. We could have won tonight as well. As a captain, I've learnt about making bowling changes. While I am batting, if I'm set, I've learnt that I should try and finish the game and then go out."

UAE now turn their attention to the Asia region qualifiers (from October 1 to 17) where they will fight for a spot at next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. If they are to make it, much will depend on their Indian-Pakistani core coming together to click as a unit.