T20 World Cup 2024: A look at the Indian-origin players in USA cricket team that beat Pakistan

The United States of America caused
one of the biggest upsets
in T20 World Cup history, when they defeated Pakistan via Super Over in Dallas on Thursday during a Group A match. Skipper Monank Patel led from the front with a half-century, with added contributions from Andries Gous (35) and Aaron Jones (36*) as the hosts equalled Pakistan’s score of 159 in 20 overs.

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The match went onto a Super Over, where the USA prevailed. USA batted first, posting 18 runs on the board, and in Pakistan’s reply, Saurabh Netravalkar was the star as he gave away just 13 runs while also taking the wicket of Iftikhar Ahmed.

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Notably, there were quite a few Indian-origin players in the USA side, including their captain Monank. We now take a look at all the India-origin players in America’s T20 World Cup squad:

Monank Patel

Monank Patel was born in Gujarat on 1 May, 1993, and played age-group cricket for the state, including U16 and U18, before shifting to the United States. Monank received a green card in 2010, and made his USA move permanent in 2016.

In 2019, Monank made his debut for the United States in a T20I against UAE, and later that year, he also made his ODI debut, against Papua New Guinea. Monank, who first played List-A cricket in 2018, was named the skipper of USA ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup Americas Qualifiers. The 31 year-old has scored 507 from 27 T20Is, while also playing 47 ODIs where he has scored 1446 runs. He has represented MI New York in Major League Cricket (MLC).

Saurabh Netravalkar

Saurabh Netravalkar was the star of USA cricket team in their win over Pakistan. He is a former captain of the side. Saurabh was born in Mumbai and was one of the players that represented India at the U19 World Cup in 2010, which featured KL Rahul.

Saurabh played domestic cricket for Mumbai, but gave up playing the sport to shift to the USA and pursue a career in software engineering at Cornell University. He is currently working for Oracle. He played for Washington Freedom in the MLC in 2023.

Nisarg Patel

Nisarg Patel, like Monank, was born in Gujarat but moved base to USA with his family when he was a teenager. He and his family are settled in Southern California, and played for the team at the 2006 U19 World Cup.

Nisarg has a master’s degree in pharmaceutical science, and has worked in England for a while. He made his senior USA debut against Canada  in 2017, and has played 41 ODIs and 21 T20Is so far.

Harmeet Singh

Harmeet Singh is one of the players who were part of the India squad that won the 2012 U19 World Cup under Unmukt Chand’s captaincy. Harmeet was born in Mumbai on 7 September, 1992 and played domestic cricket for Tripura. He quit Indian cricket in 2020 and moved to the USA a year later. He made his USA debut only earlier this year, in a T20I against Canada in April. He played for Seattle Orcas in the MLC in 2023.

Harmeet was also among the Rajasthan Royals player roster in the 2013 IPL season.

Milind Kumar

Born in Delhi, Milind Kumar represented his state in the Ranji Trophy, apart from also playing for Sikkim and Tripura. He scored 1331 runs in the 2018-19 with Sikkim, ending as the top-scorer that season. Milind was part of the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru teams in IPL in 2014 and 2019 respectively, although he failed to play a single game.

After retiring from Indian cricket in 2021, he moved to the States. He played for Texas Super Kings in the MLC in 2023, and made his debut for USA earlier this year in a T20I against Canada in April.