Ahmed Raza (Emirati cricketer)


Ahmed Raza is an Emirati cricketer who is the current captain of the United Arab Emirates cricket team. Raza is a right-handed batsman who bowls slow left-arm orthodox.

Career

Raza made his List-A debut against India A in 2006. In 2007 Raza made his first-class debut against Scotland in the 2006 ICC Intercontinental Cup and has since gone on to represent the UAE in six first class matches. In the 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup Raza was the UAE's joint leading wicket taker with twelve wickets along with Moiz Shahid.
In January 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament.
On 3 June 2018, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the Global T20 Canada tournament.
In August 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier tournament. Despite the UAE losing the final to Hong Kong, he was named the player of the tournament, after taking sixteen wickets.
In December 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. He was the leading wicket-taker for the United Arab Emirates in the tournament, with six dismissals in three matches. Later the same month, he was one of three players to be given an eight-week ban from international cricket for breaching the Emirates Cricket Board's Player's Code of Conduct, after using Twitter to criticise the facilities in Karachi during the tournament. In January 2019, the Pakistan Cricket Board had accepted apologies from all the cricketers involved. In March 2019, he returned to the UAE's squad following his suspension for their series against the United States.
In September 2019, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament in the UAE. However, prior to the tournament, he replaced Mohammad Naveed as captain, after Naveed was withdrawn from the squad. In December 2019, he was named as the captain of the ODI squad for the 2019 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series.
In January 2020, in the fourth match of the 2020 Oman Tri-Nation Series against Namibia, he took his first five-wicket haul in ODI cricket.