No stopping Heriot Preparations have been tricky but Singh targeting last four of World Finals Heriot-Watt University captain Rohit Singh admits preparations for their Red Bull Campus World Finals have “not been ideal” but feels his team are capable of reaching the semi-finals.
The Dubai-based institution will make history today against South African outfit Assupol TUKS by becoming the first side from the UAE to play in this stage of the competition.
They qualified by beating off competition from 16 teams, including a domestic final triumph over Skyline University in March.
Their preparations for this week’s event in Dehradun, India, were hampered when five Pakistani players – Abdullah Pasha, Dawood Sarwar, Mohammed Naveed, Mohsin Khan and Bilal Azmat – were denied visas to travel.
Singh insists they were even con- sidering pulling out but went ahead after three further Pakistani players received clearance.
“It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks for us,” said Singh.
“We are happy that we will be playing but it is disappointing because those five players were the core of the team.
“All of them were in the starting XI and while it will make a big difference, we’ll try to do our best.
“We have had to bring in some players but have full confidence we can do well.”
His team did have one warm-up game, losing to Assupol TUKS in Dubai on Saturday. Singh said there’s plenty of positives to gain from that defeat for the T20 tournament which will also feature student sides from England, India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.
“We know it will be hard because it is a world competition but we know what to expect having played that warm-up game,” said the 21-year-old
“The conditions will be different, and there will be some very good teams so it will be a good competition. If we have a good day, we can win some games.
“We have set a target of reaching the semi-finals. But to be honest, it’s all down to us players and how we perform as a team on that particular day. In T20s, anything can happen. If you can have one or two good overs then things can go your way.”
To achieve that feat, they will need to overcome Assupol TUKS, ICBT (Sri Lanka) and Jinnah Degree College Karachi (Pakistan) in their group games.
UAE player Singh can call on his international team-mate Chirag Suri and he feels their experience on the big stage can only help.
“The UAE experience means a lot,” he added.
“We know our standard is high and can face any bowler and batsman of any team. It will be a huge psychological difference.”
Heriot-Watt University squad Rohit Singh (captain), Chirag Suri, Chirag Makhija, Adnan Khan, Syed Faizan Ahmed, Yogesh Samriwal, Mohammad Nael, Muqeet Bhutt, Ram Narayan, Usman Munir, Dushyant Asar.
