Aaron William Benjamin- The Young left-arm Seamer rising up in the UAE ranks..

Cricketgraph envisages on bringing out new cricketing talents every now and then & today we are going to talk about a young left arm seamer Aaron Benjamin who has went on to represent UAE in the U19 Team. Aaron is also an ECB Champion (ECB-Emirates Cricket Board U19) and the youngest ambassador of brand Myprotein AE.

Having a conversation with Aaron, we wanted to know how it all started and for him it was Sri Lanka Team which turned out to be his inspiration since his early days. Aaron who began playing cricket at the age of 7 idolized Lasith Malinga and that’s where the kick of fast bowling hit him. His love for Malinga and Sri Lanka Cricket is quite evident from the fact that Aaron is originally from Sri Lanka and even till date he is open to play first class cricket in Sri Lanka if he ever gets an opportunity. Aaron trains under the mentorship of Coach Aruna Banda while he also received coaching from the Sri Lankan Pace Legend Chaminda Vaas for a brief stint.

It was in 2015 when Aaron was around 15 yrs old things started to change realtime for him in cricket. In 2015, Aaron moved to UAE as his father got a work opportunity there which also opened doors for him in UAE Cricket. Aaron started playing Club Cricket in UAE and till date he is the only fast bowler to take 48 wkts in 3 seasons in UAE U19 leagues. It was his promising display of performances which ensured a UAE National Team call up in 2019 where he fulfilled his dream of playing International Cricket.

However, it wasn’t easy for him, he had his own shares of struggles related to fitness. Aaron shared “Fitness was a big struggle but I overcame it over the time because of hard work and i have one of the best YO-YO test scores in the UAE U19 circuit”

Aaron’s biggest moment was certainly the 2019 Asia Cup where he missed out on a hat trick on his homeground. On his International debut vs India, he came up with crucial blows dismissing both the captain and vice captain of the India U19 team (Pawan Shah & Prabsimran Singh respectively)

Wishing the Sri Lankan origin speedster a great career ahead as he keeps on conquering various accolades in Domestic & International cricket.

DOB-

20.09.2000

Clubs Aaron has played for so far-

• Northside School,
• Broadhurst School, Cubs Cricket Academy,
• Alexandria Cricket Academy,
• Desert Cubs Cricket Academy,
• ICC Academy,
• Sanath Jayasuriya Cricket Academy,
• UAE U19
• Botswana U15.

Coaches

• Aruna Banda (Primary)
• Had a brief stint with Chaminda Vaas

Highest Teams & Tournaments represented-

• UAE U19, Asia Cup 2019

Best Performances-

• Local-6/12 Northside Vs Whitestone College,
• International–  2/11, UAE vs Iran, taking wickets of India U19 captain & Vice Captain in U19 Asia Cup’19