The USA Cricket National Selection Panel has named a 14-man squad to represent the United States of America on a three-week tour of Africa which culminates in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier B in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from July 11th to July 17th where there are two qualification places on offer for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
After taking 9 points from a potential 16 in the recently concluded ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 series in Texas, USA’s focus turns immediately to the shortest format with preparatory tours of Namibia and Harare, Zimbabwe before moving on to Bulawayo for the all-important qualifier. Two T20 practice matches against Namibia and Jersey in Windhoek followed by two games in Harare vs Netherlands will give Team USA great preparation ahead of the main qualification event.
Teenage left-arm spinner Vatsal Vaghela and all-rounder Marty Kain come into the squad for this tour, while Jaskaran Malhotra is named having recovered from his hand injury that kept him out of the matches in Texas.
Chair of the Men’s National Selection Panel, Michael Voss, said, “The selection panel has gone with this T20 focused squad that will give USA the strongest possible chance of taking a historic first ever qualification for any senior World Cup. Vatsal Vaghela and Marty Kain both performed well in Florida during the drawn Ireland v USA series in our last T20 internationals in December and retain their places, while we are confident that Jaskaran Malhotra will have had sufficient time to recover from his unfortunate hand injury to give us his power hitting in the middle order.”
Richard Done, USA Cricket Operations Director, added, “The ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe is a genuine chance for our Men’s National Team to make history and qualify for a first Cricket World Cup. We have worked hard to put a very strong T20 preparation program in place with T20 games vs Namibia and Jersey in Windhoek before a pair of games vs Netherlands in Harare. USA Cricket would like to thank everyone involved at Cricket Namibia, KNCB Cricket and Jersey Cricket for their assistance in helping to facilitate these matches, we are also very grateful to Zimbabwe Cricket as well. We know how difficult this qualifier will be with 8 high-quality sides all battling to get on the plane to Australia but we are hopeful of playing to the best of our abilities as a team as we seek to take one of the two qualification places.
USA Squad
Monank Patel (Captain)
Aaron Jones (Vice-Captain)
Ali Khan
Cameron Stevenson
Gajanand Singh
Jaskaran Malhotra
Marty Kain
Nisarg Patel
Rusty Theron
Saurabh Netravalkar
Steven Taylor
Sushant Modani
Yasir Mohammed
Vatsal Vaghela
Schedule
USA in Namibia
USA vs Namibia, Windhoek June 30th – T20 Practice Match
USA vs Namibia, Windhoek July 1st – T20 Practice Match
USA vs Jersey, Windhoek July 2nd – T20 Practice Match
USA vs Jersey, Windhoek July 3rd – T20 Practice Match
USA in Zimbabwe
USA vs Netherlands, Harare, July 6th – T20 Practice Match
USA vs Netherlands, Harare, July 7th – T20 Practice Match
USA vs Jersey, Bulawayo, July 11th – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B (Group A)
USA vs Singapore, Bulawayo, July 12th – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B (Group A)
USA vs Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, July 14th – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B (Group A)
Semi-Finals/5-8th Place Playoff, Bulawayo, July 15th – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B
Final Classification Match, Bulawayo, July 17th – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B