Abdul RahmanBhadelia

Cricket runs in the family for Abdul Rahman. His older brother was the first to take up the game, and as he started to do well, Abdul Rahman naturally followed in his footsteps. Most of his early cricket came through school, from primary school through to junior college, with few chances to play outside it.

His breakthrough came in a tournament for the academy that coached his school, where he outperformed several of the U16 boys. It got him noticed, and it opened the door to Singapore's U16 and U19 programmes at Kallang, where much of the training took place on astro nets as the old ground was being phased out.

Breaking into the senior Singapore side brought high-quality coaching and the chance to compete for places alongside older, more experienced players. That environment, he says, constantly pushed him to raise his standards. His first senior tour came in 2018 against Malaysia, but the international debut took four more years. Those years meant being in and out of the side, fighting for opportunities, and recovering from a serious back injury that kept him away from cricket for more than a year. He finally debuted in 2022 against Vanuatu, the same opponents he had made his Singapore A debut against. The wait taught him patience, resilience and perseverance, and made every year of hard work worth it.

One innings from that year stays with him. Chasing against Bahrain in a T20 International, with wickets falling around him, Singapore needed 40 from the last three overs. Abdul Rahman brought it down to 15 from 12 balls before being stranded at the non-striker's end as four wickets fell quickly. Singapore still finished level, and the match ended in a tie: an innings remembered for its pressure and its fightback.

Since then he has worn Singapore colours at the ACC Asia Premier Cup, the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia and the 2023 Asian Games. His goal now is simple: to enjoy his cricket.