MLC 2025 Domestic Draft review, part two: The “Rookie Round”

Major League Cricket’s third domestic player draft saw some return heroes, Minor League standouts, and plenty of unexpected surprises. Read Part One here. 

Teams make space for the Rookie Round

Heading into the draft, all six teams retained their U23 players, so it seemed possible that we might not have a U23 player selected this draft. Not so fast! During the MLC draft, teams can move retained players into higher price points, and every team must spend their entire purse before the start of the season.

New York had already filled their 10 man domestic roster with $135,000 of their $160,000 purse. It meant that they had no space for a U23 pick, but they had $25,000 to spend in order to exhaust their purse. They chose to distribute the remaining money by increasing the pay package to Nosthush Kenjige, Monank patel, U23 player Rushil Ugarkar, and last season’s supplemental pick Sunny Patel.

Seattle came into the draft needing to make at least four picks with $180,000 available to spend, but could make as many as five. After the ten round draft, Seattle had spent $160,000 on four players, leaving $20,000 unspent heading into the $5,000 rookie round. The $5,000 supplemental draft date yet to be announced. The Orcas chose to give USA star Aaron Jones a raise from his 2024 supplemental pay, leaving just enough for a rookie or a supplemental pick. 

In spite of two young players already on their roster in Ayan Desai (21) and Ali Sheikh (22), Seattle chose to fill their tenth and final domestic slot during the Rookie Round, taking advantage of their right to pick first. With that pick, the franchise chose wicketkeeper Rahul Jariwala from northern California.

Seattle’s pick has youth and experience

Perhaps no prospect in the USA has been regarded as highly for as long as Jariwala. And though he’s only 20 years of age, few at any age have endured such soaring heights and crushing disappointments.

Picked for the USA U19 Men’s squad at only 15 years of age in 2019, Jariwala was considered a shoo-in for the U21 squad in 2021. That spring, USA Cricket staged their first ever U19 Men’s National Championship, a proving ground for national U19 hopefuls. Jariwala finished 30th overall on the runs chart, with a tally of 58 across four innings. That performance ultimately led to him being named as only a reserve on the national U19 team.

That same summer, Minor League Cricket launched in full, and the youngster bounced back. He helped his Silicon Valley Strikers to the inaugural title while opening the batting and keeping wicket. His contributions earned him a spot on the tournament’s U21 team. In the autumn, USA staged a men’s senior national championship and the U19 Men’s squad was included as one of the teams. With wicketkeeper Slade Van Staden back home in South Africa, a spot freed up for Jariwala. He seized the opportunity with both hands, topping the tournament run scorer charts.

In June 2022, USA Cricket named Jariwala in the ODI team and he made his debut at Moosa Stadium against UAE. After scoring only 30 runs in four innings, he was out of the team and has yet to return. 

Return to Form

In 2024, after three seasons and 49 games with the Silicon Valley Strikers, Jariwala changed teams. The Golden State Grizzlies, a team in the midst of a youth-centered rebuild after two disappointing seasons, brought him in to open the batting. The 20-year-old answered with his best MiLC season to date, scoring 229 runs in eight innings. This included a blistering knock of 90 runs from 56 balls against the second placed Thunderbolts in a Woodley Park chase on 16th September. This career high score came in a game where he captained in the place of injured Vatsal Vaghela.

“With the Grizzlies, we went with a very different approach,” Jariwala told Emerging Cricket. “Our team was extremely young and inexperienced. This meant that every team we were playing, we were the underdogs. And that kind of gave us a chance to show some fight and resilience. And especially with Vatsal’s absence for half of the season, I was fortunate enough to lead that group of kids, that team.”

Like Karthik Gattepalli, Jariwala had hoped to be drafted as a U23 in 2023, and then again last season in 2024. His misfortune didn’t stop him from feeling happy for others. And even after all of last season’s U23 players were retained, he didn’t give up hope for 2025.

“Just because I may not be succeeding doesn’t mean I need to wish bad on anyone else, and I feel so happy when I see other people succeed, especially my peers. Like Sai’s 100,” Jariwala said of Sai Mukkamalla’s century against Oman in a T20I the day before the domestic draft. Mukkamalla, another talented 20-year-old, has been on the Texas Super Kings roster since day one in 2023, and already has 41 international apperances under his belt for USA. Like Jariwala, Mukkamalla has also opened the batting in MiLC since the first season.

“I think that development of character and personality, even with the ups and downs, has taught me a lot and it’s kind of shaped me into the person that I’m today for sure. I did put up performances, so if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. And I think that if I didn’t get picked next year, or this year, then I would have had to work even harder.”

When the call finally came for Jariwala, a student at UCLA who has always prioritized his studies, he was in his dorm recovering from a long day of classes. “I didn’t want to expect anything, but I’ve worked hard. I put a lot of work into my fitness, and I was hoping my hard work would pay off. I’m very grateful that Seattle invested in me and they’re willing to look after me. I’m not sure how much higher it can get than this.”

Texas triples down on youth

Alongside Mukkamalla, Texas Super Kings feature young all-rounder Joshua Tromp (19). Just like Seattle, Texas ended the ten round draft with $5,000 left, giving them the second pick in the Rookie Round, should they choose to use it. Or they could save that slot for the supplemental draft, where they could still take a player like Zia Shahzad and return him to the roster as depth support for star domestic leggie Mohammad Mohsin.

Texas chose to roll the dice on 20 year old leg spinner Adam Khan with the second pick in the rookie round.


A social media graphic created by the Texas Super Kings shows off Adam Khan’s MiLC stats

“I got the news from the team manager right before I was heading to practice, and I thought I was being pranked,” Khan told Emerging Cricket. “Once it kicked in, I was just eternally grateful for my parents and everyone who has gotten me to this point.”

Currently a leading bowler for Tallangatta Cricket Club in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, traveling for cricket is nothing new for the young Floridian. Like many young American cricketers inspired to play with and against the best, Khan would often travel to represent youth clubs several states away for tournament play.

At 16, he was a member of the 2021 South Zone in the U19 Nationals, but found himself on a team loaded with leg spinners, including captain Danush Kaveripakam and Aditya Gupta. The latter was a favorite to make the national U19 team until a serious knee injury removed him from consideration. The competition for places meant that Khan only bowled nine overs in two innings.

After only a few overs in 2021 for Fort Lauderdale Lions in Minor League Cricket, Khan moved to Orlando Galaxy, where he again saw limited chances. Back with the Lions in 2023, he started to get more gametime, thanks to improved performances (five wickets in 12 overs at 7.67 economy).

Khan had one more shot at the USA U19 squad, and bowled well in the 2023 U19 National Championships, taking three wickets in 20 overs at a 4.80 economy for South Zone. But it wasn’t enough to convince national selectors.

2024 would prove to be a breakout year, as Khan earned crucial overs with Fort Lauderdale in MiLC, as the Lions joined the trend of utilising more youth talent. He generated increased movement through the air, pairing that with his trademark accuracy. It brought him 12 wickets in 21 overs against his South Division foes. His form carried across formats into the Men’s National Championships, where he took five wickets in 31 overs at a 4.81 economy, and again in the Men’s Selection Trials, where he took five more wickets in 12 overs at 6.85 economy. 

“I feel super proud to be representing a team that has a great legacy behind them in leagues around the world,” Khan said of a franchise which includes other stars like Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmad and domestic standout Mohsin. “It feels amazing being surrounded by some of the best legspinners in the world! I’m looking forward to learning loads from them.”

San Fran finds another Unicorn

San Francisco Unicorns feature the most impactful U23 draftee thus far in Major League Cricket in Sanjay Krishnamurthi, who was a key piece of their 2024 runner up campaign. It makes sense then why they would double down on youth and fill their last roster spot with a U23 draft pick.

Adam Khan’s teammate in Fort Lauderdale, Achilles Browne, would have tempted any team in the draft. Versatile and talented, Browne splits his time between the US, Barbados and the United Kingdom, where he always seems to fill a spot of need with whomever he plays. On any given game day, you can find Browne with the keeper gloves, or bowling medium fast, and probably scoring runs with the bat either way.

Achilles Browne collects his player of the match award at the 2024 USA Men’s Nationals

Perhaps the rarest position to fill in franchise cricket is the domestic fast bowling all rounder, and that’s especially true in America as well. While Browne is fairly new to fast bowling, he possesses the frame, strength and athleticism to maximise his skills. If there is a pick in this draft that represents a long-term investment with a high potential ceiling and is a true “unicorn”, then it’s Achilles Browne. 

It’s his batting that makes him more than just untapped potential, hedging the Unicorns’ bet should his bowling not pan out at the MLC level, where domestic allrounders struggle for overs.

Though he hasn’t put up terribly impressive numbers in Minor League Cricket, where he has five lifetime wickets in 14 overs, and only 35 runs with the bat, Browne has shown serious promise in USA’s national championship tournaments. In the 2023 Men’s U19 National Championship, he scored 140 runs in four innings and took two wickets in 31 overs at an economy of 5.03. But, like Jariwala in 2021, it was at the senior Men’s National Championship that Browne made himself noticed.

In four innings in the 2024 USA Men’s National Championships (50 overs), he scored 182 runs for an average of 60.67 and a strike rate of 87.08, including 103 for the East Zone against a dangerous West Zone bowling attack that only conceded double digit runs to three batters in the innings. Browne was one of only five batters to score a century in the Nationals, and one of only two to have another innings go for at least 50 runs. With the ball, he took three wickets in 13 overs at an economy of 6.15.

The rookie round wrapped up a draft that featured a total of five players taken aged 24 or younger. With an impressive stock of youth already making names for themselves in the U19 and Men’s national events, as well as a youth movement in many MiLC teams, it looks as if there has been tangible progress on the “return on investment” that was promised when Minor League was introduced back in 2020.

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