Joseph Baguma hopes the Baby Cricket Cranes rack up enough experience from the tour of India as they build up to the start of the ICC U19 World Cup Regional Qualifiers.
The U19 side is in India for a fourteen day tour which will see them play six 50 Over games and one T20 match as part of their preparations for the Qualifiers that are due in July in Tanzania.
The side has already played two games, which games they convincingly won, and which games Baguma excelled in. The 17-year-old was named Man of the match in both games due to his outstanding displays that had him claim 9 wickets in total.
As the team continues self assessing itself, the spinner who earned his senior national team debut last year hopes whatever they learn from this trip will go a long way in helping them outcompete other nations in Tanzania.
“We are trying to play some basics because India is just like Tanzania,” Baguma who already has World Cup experience to his belt having been part of the team that took part in last year’s edition in West Indies said.
“It is the same conditions so we are trying to gain more experience from here to help us in our qualification quest. Personally, I’m trying to bowl in variations so I can use them properly in the Qualifiers.”
The team’s assistant coach Robinson Turinawe highlighted the same. Turinawe insists they are majorly concentrating on the basics.
“We are trying to polish bowling according to proper lines and length. We are also working in pairs in fielding and in partnerships in batting. It’s basically what we are building on.”
Uganda has featured at the U19 World Cup thrice (in 2004, 2006 and 2022), but they will have to first negotiate their way past Namibia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and hosts Tanzania to book their ticket for next year’s showpiece in Sri Lanka.
