Hosts UAE Under-19 team captain Sharafu and his idol De Villiers’ style

By K.R. Nayar

UAE Under-19 team skipper Alishan Sharafu has been consistently recording huge scores in the recent past, which is becoming more of a second nature for him. In fact, he has been doing this from a very young age in UAE’s domestic cricket and has earned many awards. Most of his knocks have been breezy ones. This youngster idolises the South African legend AB De Villiers.

Alishan Sharafu displays the bat with which he played his whirlwind knock

It is this consistency in his performance that got him the honour of being named the skipper of the host team for the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup to be held from December 23 to 31.

Speaking to the krbuzz.blogspot.com, Sharafu said: “It’s truly a great honour to lead the UAE and I feel blessed to have been given this responsibility. I would like to do everything I can to take my team over the line.” Incidentally, there is a reason behind his positivity in being able to carry the team over the line.  He adores India’s Test team captain Virat Kohli, who too is always aiming for the same. “Kohli is a fighter and lifts his team out of very tough situations and gets the team over the line. This is what I enjoy doing too,” remarked Sharafu.

Alishan Sharafu leads the way 

UAE is in Group A alongside India who is the seven-time winner of the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup. The other teams in the group are the formidable Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Our team is well balanced and we have been preparing for quite some time now and the boys are getting along really well," added Sharafu.

UAE takes on India in their opening match, then meets Afghanistan on December 25 at the same venue, and Pakistan on December 27, all of them at the ICC Academy Oval Cricket Ground 1. The UAE skipper is confident that is his team will deliver. According to him, “We are hoping to upset some big teams and produce some good results. We have some really talented youngsters in our side who are hungry to do well.”

UAE coach and former Indian allrounder Robin Singh 

The team has been working hard with every team member wanting to rise to the challenge. “Our coaches Robin Singh, Mudassar Nazar, and Najeeb Amar and the whole management have put in a lot of hard work in shaping us to get the best results out of each one of us,” says Sharafu, who was born in Kerala, India. He always tries to follow Singh’s cardinal advice - “Try and bat through the innings and whenever you go out, try and finish the innings and only then return.”

In 2019, Sharafu played a fine knock of 151 runs, which he bettered the next year with a cracking 155 against Maxtalent Academy from Dubai. In 2018, during an inter-school tournament, he had cracked 101 off just 48 balls.  His knock of 146 in December 2020 for Pacific Goltay in the Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League at the Ajman Cricket Ground came off just 42 balls with 11 boundaries and 14 sixes. Hence it is no wonder that Sharafu idolises ABD. “AB De Villiers is my idol. I would love to bat like him displaying all the strokes.” 

My interview with Alishan Sharafu published in 2018 

Soon selectors picked him to represent the UAE. He became the only player in the UAE to be selected for the UAE Under-16, Under-19, and the men's T20 team as a 15-year-old. In December 2020, at the age of 17, Sharafu earned a part-time contract from the Emirates Cricket Board. In February 2020, he became the third-youngest player to debut in a T20 tournament for the UAE in Oman.

When Alishan Sharafu sparkled as a bowler in the 2018 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup against India

Sharafu bowls accurate medium pace too. In the 2018 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup in Bangladesh, he bowled well against Afghanistan and India. Working hard towards his goals, Sharafu wants to work harder and be a permanent member of the UAE team in all formats of the game. His consistent performances could well take him on that path.