• Flashback 2021• Qatar ready to exploit home conditions in crucial Asian sub-regional qualifiers, says skipper ChoudhryThe 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asian sub-regional qualifiers to start at Asian Town Stadium from October 23Qatar skipper Iqbal Hussain Choudhry is quite excited to return to competitive action as his team hosts the Asian sub-regional Group A qualifiers for the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Asian Town Stadium from October 23.Besides Qatar, other four contesting teams are Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives. The winner will advance to one of the two Global qualifiers to be held later. Malaysia will organize the six-team Group B matches from November 9 to 15.Choudhry, who has risen to the captaincy of the national team after playing fun cricket with the tape ball on the streets with his brothers and cousins, is aware of the big challenge that is coming up after nearly one and a half years have been lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.“The whole world faced a very tragic time because of the pandemic. By God’s grace, the normalcy is however returning. Last time when we were playing, we were in a very encouraging shape. We stunned a much-higher ranked Oman in a group match at the Asian T20 Western Region qualifiers.“It was a bit unfortunate that we could not carry on that form. We then lost to Bahrain in a group game and then suffered the defeat at the hands of another strong outfit UAE after shooting them out for just 122 runs in the semi-finals,” the 32-year-old all-rounder recalled with a sigh of pain and regret.Choudhry chose to put it all behind and tried to lay emphasis on restarting the international cricket on a big note. “We have some new faces this time in the final 14. They are all very talented and I am confident that two or three of them will surely catch the international attention soon.Opener Andri Berenger, who has played the 2010 Junior World Cup for Sri Lanka and represented the UAE in the ICC World Cup in 2015, left-arm fast bowler and former Kuwait international Murad Khan, right-arm fast bowler Mohammed Ikram and leg-spinner Sandun Vithanage. These newcomers will join hands with experienced players like captain Choudhry, vice-captain Mohammed Rizlan, Muhammad Tanveer, Kamran Khanand Zaheer Ibrahim to give a good balance to the national team. One of the absentees is all-rounder Tamoor Sajjad, who has moved to England for family reasons.Choudhry, while talking about the upcoming assignment, says that each match islike a new start and his team would take one match at a time.“After the time lost to the pandemic, all teams have been forced to start afresh. Just as we have some fresh faces, others may also have them. In T20, there is a very little margin of error. We have to play each match as the last one and try to give our best. The Qatar skipper, who also led his Falcon Hunters to the inaugural T10 franchise cricket title in 2019 after winning the final against Kamran Akmal-led Swift Gallopers with a penultimate-ball six, is hoping to repeat some of the glorious moments and memories of the 2019-2020.“From 2016, we began our upward journey and the 2019 to early parts of the 2020 were the best for us. We played very hard cricket and got some morale- lifting results. We beat Kuwait in away friendly series in a Super Over and the same thing happened when we hosted the return series.“We emerged the winners in the Super Over again. We won series against Uganda and Jersey as well. Then we had a new experience of the T10 event. Pakistan’s Salman Butt and South African Hashim Amla were the part of my team. It was a great learning experience with them, especially about how to handle pressure during tight situations.“All players are in fighting frame. We did a lot of gym and have been practising in the camp for two months. In the meantime, the Premier Division league has also started and it has also fine-tuned us a bit. All the players are keen to give their best, while supporting each other. The Western Region event is not far away. We just hope to refind our rhythm,” he added.Talking about the lone spot in the event, Choudhry said: “Only the winner wil advance to the next stage. So each game is crucial and we can’t be complacent at any stage. Home condition dynamics will help us surely as we have played here for a long time. Whatever we have learnt through our experience, we will try to bring it into play and see what happens.”
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