The story of American cricketers who defeated legends in the first step while learning the basics of cricket is no less interesting. Some were looking for better things after a good performance in their first class career, some wanted life to give them another chance, while some made every sacrifice to fulfill their passion and reached here.
Following is a brief introduction of the American cricketers who created a sensation by defeating the previous runners-up and former champions Pakistan in the T20 World Cup.
Monank Patel: Ahmedabad-born captain Monank Patel was named Player of the Match for his half-century. He is one of the few people who immigrated to the US to pursue a career in cricket. He got a green card in 2010 and settled in New Jersey in 2016.
When not playing for the national team, he spends three days a week teaching cricket to children of Indian origin and conducting coaching clinics. Initially, there were not many turf pitches in India and Monank has also played a lot on mats.
Saurabh Netravalkar: Netravalkar, who bowled the super over against Pakistan, took the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed. In 2010, he bowled to England’s Under 19 cricketers Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes who were playing the World Cup in New Zealand. Netravalkar used to bowl with Jaydev Unadkat and Punjab’s Sandeep Sharma at that time. But in Mumbai, just being good is not enough, one has to be the best.
After completing his engineering in computer science, Netra got a scholarship to pursue MS at Cornell University in the US. He could never part with cricket and made headlines by performing well at every level in American cricket. Apart from cricket, he can be seen at Oracle’s office in Silicon Valley where he is a senior employee.
Harmeet Singh: Ian Chappell wanted to see him in the Indian team after seeing his performance in the Under 19 World Cup 2012 but he lost his way later. Police caught him when he drove his car inside the railway station and Mumbai Cricket turned its back on him due to indiscipline. He went to Tripura but did not get success. After this he thought of going to America which proved to be the right decision. He found his rhythm and performed brilliantly in the recent series against Bangladesh.
Nosthush Kenjige: Tamil-American Kenjige left Ooty with his parents and settled in the US. He was a left-arm medium-fast bowler before becoming a spinner at the age of thirteen. When he turned 18, his parents sent him to Bangalore where he played in the KSCA first division league. When he realized that it was difficult to make it to the Karnataka team, he returned to the US and did a course in biomedical engineering.
When he returned, he did not have a cricket kit in his luggage but his mother had put a ball in his suitcase. He used to play squash while working in Washington and there he came to know about club cricket in New York. He quit his job and played for the US in ICC’s WCA Division 4.
Milind Kumar: When Milind Kumar started playing, everyone thought that Delhi has got a great player but within seven years he was seen playing with the tail-end batsmen in the Ranji Trophy. He started playing for the Sikkim team in the Plate League but his career did not progress even after scoring 1300 runs. After Corona, he went to America and started playing domestic tournaments. Even during his days playing for Delhi, he was a smart fielder and he gave a glimpse of this by taking a spectacular catch of Iftikhar Ahmed in the super over in the T20 World Cup.
Nitish Kumar: Be it India or America, this is a good time for Nitish Kumar. In 2011, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s six won the World Cup for India and Virat Kohli was the rising star, Nitish, who was still in school, created a world record for being the youngest player to play in a 50-over World Cup for Canada against Zimbabwe at the age of 16 years and 283 days. Thirteen years later, his four off the last ball of Haris Rauf was the most golden moment of his career.
Jaspreet Jesse Singh: Born in New Jersey and raised in Pind, Punjab, Jaspreet returned to the US as a teenager in search of opportunities. He was dropped from the US team that played the West Indies in 2015. After this, he started working hard and improved his game by playing first-class matches in Sri Lanka in 2016. Along with Pakistan’s Ali Khan, he is the pivot of the US fast attack. He took the valuable wicket of Babar Azam.
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