With India preparing to face co-hosts the United States in their T20 World Cup 2024 encounter at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Wednesday, there will be some interesting match-ups.
Before the match on Wednesday, the host broadcaster Star Sports posted a video featuring US cricketers Saurabh Netravalkar, skipper Monank Patel, Harmeet Singh, Ali Khan, and Corey Anderson discussing their upcoming encounter against India.
Welcoming Team India to the USA, Saurabh Netravalkar expressed confidence in the US team’s ability to compete against top cricketers by focusing on playing their best game and keeping strategies simple. He said, “If we play our best game, we can compete against top cricketers. We will try to take one game at a time and not get overwhelmed by the star-studded players. We will try to bowl against a batsman and bat against a bowler. Try to keep it simple.”
US Captain Monank Patel described the surreal feeling of facing Rohit Sharma during the toss and emphasized the team’s approach of not overly focusing on the opposition, instead concentrating on playing their own brand of cricket. He remarked, “You dream about these things. Suddenly you see yourself with Rohit Sharma on the toss time. It’s unreal. It will be a high-pressure game, we don’t want to focus too much on them right now. We want to play the brand of cricket we want to play against all the teams.”
Harmeet Singh shared his admiration for Rohit Sharma, reminiscing about looking up to him while growing up, and expressed excitement about playing against former teammates from India at the U-19 level. He added, “Growing up I used to look up to Rohit Sharma. Rohit comes from my school. I’ll take things as they come. With Sanju (Samson), and Kuldeep (Yadav) I have played U-19 for India. Axar (Patel) I have played with him. It’ll be fun catching up with them and playing against them.”
Meanwhile, pacer Ali Khan, who hails from Pakistan, expressed his anticipation of bowling to Virat Kohli, stating, “Virat Kohli has always been one of the favorites and coming up against him and playing against him, it will be really really good. He is very passionate on the field but so am I. On the field, if things get heated up then they get heated up. I mean you play fire with fire. He’s right up there. They call him King Kohli for a reason,” he added.
On the other hand, the USA will have Corey Anderson, the former New Zealand all-rounder in their ranks, who has played against India numerous times for Kiwis and also participated in the IPL. Corey Anderson highlighted the excitement and challenge of playing against India. He said, “That’s the beauty of playing against India. You know that you’re going to have millions and millions of eyes on you and you know they are against you. There are familiar foes that I have faced and played against. You have done this before and there is evidence to suggest that you can do it again.”
Among the USA team, five were Indian natives. The team’s India-born players include Ronak Patel, Nisarg Patel, Saurabh Netravalkar, Harmeet Singh, and Milind Kumar.