Since 2007, Rohan Mustafa has represented the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He was born in Pakistan on October 7, 1988. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler and former national captain who plays both left-handed batting and off-spin bowling.
Early Life
In Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, in the city of Kohat, Mustafa was born. When he was 10 years old, his family relocated to the UAE, where his father operated a car dealership in Sharjah. His father gave him tremendous support as he pursued his cricketing goals, and he soon enrolled in the Sharjah Cricket Academy. From a young age, his father served as one of his cricketing coaches.
When Mustafa was 15 years old, his father passed away suddenly. His family had left for Pakistan shortly after his father’s passing. Due to his family’s financial struggles, he initially found it difficult to cope with his father’s passing. He also had trouble pursuing his cricket career. In the end, he was chosen for the 2007 UAE U-19 national team. While his brother had moved to Chile, his mother and sister still reside in Pakistan.
Playing Cricket Career
On November 30, 2007, he played against Oman in the 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division Two event, making his List A debut. Against Ireland on March 12, 2013, in Sharjah during the 2011–2013 ICC Intercontinental Cup, he made his first-class debut. On March 21, 2013, he faced Ireland in his first T20 match.
On February 1, 2014, Mustafa played in his first One Day International match against Scotland. He also made his Twenty20 International debut against the Netherlands one month later, on March 17, 2014, during the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. Mustafa was named the UAE’s vice-captain following the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
He faced a protracted legal fight in September 2014 when a Dubai court barred him from entering the nation for a year after finding him guilty of evading duty. He was charged with breaking the terms of the contract by allegedly playing for another company without receiving formal consent from his employers.
He swiftly left for Pakistan, but with the help of his old employers, the Emirates Cricket Board, and former UAE head coach Aqib Javed, he was able to secure the no objection certificate and win the court appeal, which allowed him to reverse the court’s decision. After the appeal was upheld in November 2014, he once again had a chance to compete for a spot in the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
Mustafa opened the batting with Muhammad Kaleem in the first game against Afghanistan in the 2016 Asia Cup Qualifier, scoring 77 runs off of 50 balls. With this, a UAE player broke the previous record for the highest score in a Twenty20 International. The UAE went on to win the game by 16 runs. Mustafa also grabbed three wickets in Afghanistan’s innings, which is a record for an international bowler to take three wickets and 75+ runs in the same match.
On April 4, 2017, Mustafa struck 109 against Papua New Guinea to record his first One Day International century. He recorded his first five-wicket haul (5/25) in the same game. In doing so, he joined Paul Collingwood and Viv Richards as the only other players to score a century and take five wickets in the same ODI.
He was chosen as the United Arab Emirates team’s captain in January 2018 in preparation for the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two competition. He was a member of the Emirati team that competed in the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier competition. He and Sean Williams received a reprimand for violating Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during a pivotal super six encounter between the UAE and Zimbabwe at the 2018 World Cup Qualifier and were each given one penalty point.
He was appointed the United Arab Emirates team’s captain in August 2018 in preparation for the 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier competition. He was appointed the United Arab Emirates team’s captain in December 2018 in preparation for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. Later that month, after using Twitter to complain about the tournament’s facilities in Karachi, he was one of three players who received an eight-week suspension from international cricket for violating the Emirates Cricket Board’s Player’s Code of Conduct. All of the concerned cricketers submitted letters of apology to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in January 2019. After being suspended for the UAE’s series against the US, he rejoined the team in March 2019.
He was included in the United Arab Emirates team in September 2019 in preparation for the UAE’s hosting of the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup qualifier. The International Cricket Council (ICC) designated him as the UAE team’s crucial player prior to the competition. With eleven dismissals in eight games, he was the tournament’s top wicket-taker for the UAE.
Rohan Mustafa was one of those 10 cricketers who were given a full-time contract for a year by the Emirates Cricket Board in December 2020. When Mustafa attained his career-best position of 7 in the ICC T20I rankings for all-rounders in February 2022, he became the first player from the Emirati nation to be placed inside the top 10 of the ICC rankings in any format.
Bio Data
Born: 7 October 1988
Age: 34 Years
Birth Place: Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Batting: Left-handed
Bowling: Right-arm off break
Role: All Rounder
