The USA cricket team has made history by advancing to the Super Eight of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. The way they played against the Test-playing nations, the cricket world found a new favourite team. Here we are looking at a few cricketers from the USA cricket team who have some connection to India apart from their love of cricket.
Monank Patel
Monank Patel, the captain of the USA cricket team in the ongoing T20 World Cup who could not take part in the match against India, has managed to impress one and all with his performances so far in the tournament. Monank, hailing originally from Anand, Gujrat is one of the famous names in the USA cricket. He started playing professional cricket for this country in 2018 as a top-order batter and wicketkeeper. He had represented Gujarat at the Under-16 and Under-19 cricket.
Monank became the captain of the USA cricket team ahead of the T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier in Antigua. He has been part of the growth of USA cricket not just with his performance but also with his conceptions and executions. He has played 47 ODIs and 27 T20Is including the recent T20 World Cup matches. His heroics against Pakistan brought the historic win for the USA team that eventually helped them through the Super Eight.
Harmeet Singh
Harmeet Singh is a Mumbaikar who started as a youngster in Indian domestic cricket. He played for Mumbai and Tripura in the domestic circuit and went on to represent India during the 2010 and 2012 Under 19 World Cup that India won. He even featured in an IPL game for Rajasthan Royals in 2013 and Tripura as a local player. In 2021, he moved to the USA. He left the country but did not leave the game.
The bowling all-rounder from Mumbai started with club cricket in the new country and signed a three-year-old with Seattle Thunderbolts for the Minor League Cricket in 2021. Then in March 2024, eventually he made a place in the USA team. Harmeet, famous for his slow left-arm orthodox bowling, was once compared with the legend Bishan Singh Bedi by former Australia great Ian Chappell.
Milind Kumar
Milind Kumar is another India-born player in the USA squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. He was born in Delhi in 1991 and started playing cricket at the young age. He played domestic cricket for Delhi and Sikkim before making it to the Indian Premier League. He was part of Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. Milind took retirement from Indian cricket in 2021 and decided to move to the USA to start afresh.
After playing Major League Cricket he got selected in the T20 World Cup 2024 for his new team. Milind enjoyed a great Ranji Season in 2018 when playing for Tripura and finished the season as the highest run scorer with 1331 runs scored in just eight matches with an average of 121.00. For USA, he has played just four T20Is scoring 27 runs and yet to be featured in the T20 World Cup.
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Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar gained instant popularity after his 14-ball 14 against Pakistan that took the match to the Super Over, won by the USA eventually. Nitish Kumar was born to an Indian-Canadian family in Ontario, Canada in 1994. His first exposure at international level came as a Canadian cricketer and he went on to captain the side in 2016. In 2011 World Cup as well Nitish played for Canada.
At the time of his debut for Canada, Nitish was just 15 years 273 days old and was the second youngest male player to play international cricket after Hasan Raza. He was also the youngest player to get featured in a World Cup game when he played against Zimbabwe in the 2011 World Cup. He then switched countries recently during pandemic for more opportunities. In April 2024, Nitish Kumar debuted for the USA and became part of the country’s cricket folklore instantly during the match against Pakistan.
Saurabh Netravalkar
Saurabh Netravalkar is the next name in the list who has become an overnight sensation since the beginning of the T20 World Cup 2024. Saurabh is a familiar face from Indian cricket who played for India in the 2010 U19 World Cup along with KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Jaydev Unadkad. Due to lack of opportunities even after debuting for Mumbai in First-Class cricket in 2013, Saurabh moved to the USA. He debuted for the USA cricket team in 2019 and with his skill became a popular name soon.
Interestingly, Netravalkar was the captain of the USA team in his ODI and T20I debuts and also the first bowler from the USA to register 5-wicket hauls in One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals. To date, Netravalkar has grabbed 104 wickets in international cricket with 73 wickets in ODIs and 31 in T20Is. Fans are now concerned about how the Oracle professional has extended his leave after his heroics against Pakistan in the Super-over played a key role for the USA to qualify for the next round.
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