Yusuf Abdulla belongs to a Muslim family and was raised in Lenasia, a suburb located in the South of Johannesburg, he played for his high school in Gauteng before his family shifted to Dundee in KwaZulu Natal. He was picked by Yashin Ebrahim of the KZN academy to be trained directly under him. And after giving a solid performance in the 2006–07 season in the Pro-20 in which he got 9 wickets at an average of 12.0 he was selected for the High Performance Centre in Pretoria as one of the 20 amateurs to train at the National Academy. He is of Indian origin as his mother is from the city of Surat in Gujarat, India.Exclusive interview of Yusuf Abdulla (27 July 2010). . Youtube.
