India's Under-19 World Cup winning captain Unmukt Chand's hopes of representing the United States of America (USA) in T20 World Cup have taken a massive hit, having been left out of the squad for the T20I series against Canada, starting April 7. Chand, who retired from Indian cricket in 2021, had qualified to represent the USA earlier this year. However, Unmukt did not find a place in USA's 15-man squad for the five-match series against neighbours Canada.
Earlier this year, Unmukt had expressed his excitement over the idea of playing against a like India. He said that he is keen to test himself against the country of his birth.
"Something which would be very strange (laughs), but I think since I've retired from India, my next goal was always to sort of play against India, and not in any bad blood but keen to test myself out against the best team in the world," Chand told Cricbuzz.
Coming back to the USA squad, Chand was left out of it despite scoring 1500 runs in 45 Major League Cricket (MLC) games. He is the second all-time leading run-scorer in the tournament's history.
Meanwhile, Monank Patel will lead USA against Canada, with the first game in Houston, Texas on April 7.
Corey Anderson, a former New Zealand all-rounder, is also set to mark his return to international cricket after six years.
The 33-year-old played 13 Tests, 49 ODIs and 31 T20Is for New Zealand from 2012 to 2018 and once held the record for the fastest hundred in ODIs.
USA Squad for Canada T20I series
Monank Patel (Captain), Aaron Jones (Vice-Captain), Andries Gous, Corey Anderson, Gajanand Singh, Harmeet Singh, Jessy Singh, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Nitish Kumar, Noshtush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Usman Rafiq
Reserves: Shayan Jahangir, Juanoy Drysdale, Saiteja Mukkamalla