The United States of America (USA) are the story of the 2024 T20 World Cup, as not only are they hosting a major cricket tournament for the first time in history, but their team is playing a major senior international tournament for the second time in history after the 2004 Champions Trophy.

In their appearance in the T20 World Cup, the USA have made a strong impression after winning their opening game against Canada. In their second game against Pakistan, they caused arguably the greatest upsets in cricket history by winning the match in a super over. Before coming into the T20 World Cup, the American side stunned the cricket fraternity by defeating Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series.

Five Indian-born players part of USA squad

Monak Patel – The captain of the USA Squad, Monak Patel, was born in the Indian city of Anand, Gujarat. He played for Gujarat in age-group cricket (U-16 and U-18) before moving to the USA. He got a green card in 2010 and settled permanently in the country in 2016; he was based in New Jersey.

Monak made his debut for the USA in an T20I against the UAE in March 2019, having first played for the country in 2018 in List-A cricket. Later, he made his ODI debut against PNG in April 2019.

Monak was first named captain of the USA in the 2021 T20 World Cup Americas qualifiers. So far, he has played 47 ODIs and 20 T20Is for the USA. He plays for MI New York in Major League Cricket.

Harmeet Singh – Harmeet Singh is among the most popular names in the USA Squad as he was part of the 2012 Indian U-19 team that won the World Cup under Unmukt Chand’s captaincy. Harmeet was born and played for Mumbai. He also represented Tripura in domestic cricket before retiring form Indian cricket after the 2020 season. He was part of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) squad in the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL).

The all-rounder who bowls left-arm spin and is a handy lower-order bat moved to the USA in 2021 and settled in Seattle. He joined the Seattle Thunderbolts in the Minor Cricket League and was part of the Seattle Orcas in Major League Cricket (MLC) in the 2023 season.

After being eligible to play for the USA in 2024, he made his debut against Canada in April.

Nisarg Patel – Nisarg Patel, a left-arm spin bowler, was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and India but moved to the USA with his family as a teenager and settled in Southern California. Patel has been part of the USA cricket structure for a long time and even played for their U-19 team in the 2006 U-19 World Cup.

Nisarg is someone with a master’s degree in pharmaceutical science who even worked in England for a few years.

Nisarg’s senior debut for the USA took place in 2017, while his first ODI and T20I outing for the national team was in 2019. The 36-year-old has played 41 ODIs and 21 T20Is for the USA national cricket team.

Milind Kumar – Milind Kumar is also part of the USA 15-man squad playing in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He was born in the Indian capital city of Delhi. He played for his native Delhi team in the Ranji Trophy, as well as Sikkim and Tripura. In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season, he had a stunning tally of 1331 runs. He has also been part of the Delhi Daredevils (DC) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) camps in the 2014 and 2019 IPL, respectively, but never played a single game.

Milind retired from Indian cricket in 2021, moved to the USA, and played for the Texas Super Kings in MLC 2023. He made his national team debut earlier this year.

Saurabh Netravalkar – A former captain of the United States of America (USA) cricket team, Saurabh Netravalkar was born in Mumbai, India, and was part of the 2010 U-19 Indian Cricket Team, which played in the World Cup that year with KL Rahul as his teammate.

Netravalkar played for Mumbai in domestic cricket but quit the sport and moved to the USA in order to pursue a course in software engineering at Cornell University. He is also an alumus of Mumbai’s Sardar Patel Institute of Technology. He currently works for Oracle.

Netravalkar made his debut for the USA in 2018 and has played 48 ODIs and 21 T20Is so far. He led the national team for a considerable period, starting in 2018. Last year, he played for the Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket (MLC).