T20 World Cup 2024 team preview: USA

The USA has a rich cricketing history dating back to the eighteenth century. The fixture between USA and Canada in 1844 was the first recorded international cricket match. Cricket remained popular through to the early twentieth century in regions across North America, with teams touring regularly in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The early cricketers from USA were of first-class standard with some undoubtedly being world-class talents, most notably Bart King Jr, the original King of Swing.  

As co-hosts alongside the West Indies, the USA will be hoping to produce a good showing in their debut T20 World Cup and help push forward the growth of cricket in the region. Whilst the USA has long been regarded as a hotbed of cricket, missing the infrastructure and management to organise the sport across the region, the establishment of competitive structures in the Minor League and Major League Cricket and the relocation of high-quality players into the system has provided the USA with a great depth of good T20 cricketers that many full members would envy.  

The USA appointed new head coach Stuart Law in April 2024 and as such has not had an extensive amount of time to prepare for the World Cup and work with the players but has had a successful start as head coach, guiding the team to a 2-1 series victory against Bangladesh in May 2024, their first series win against a full member.  

How USA Qualified? 

As co-hosts of the 2024 T20 World Cup alongside the West Indies, the USA qualified automatically for the tournament. 

Fixtures 

Saturday, 1st June 2024, v Canada, Dallas 

Thursday, 6th June 2024, v Pakistan, Dallas 

Wednesday, 12th June 2024, v India, New York 

Friday, 14th June 2024, v Ireland, Lauderhill  

Key Players 

It’s been great to see Ali Khan firing as strong as ever since his return to the national side. After a solid season in the ILT20 for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, the right-arm pacer took a wicket in his return match and a 3-fer in the second, both against Bangladesh. Having missed on more warm-ups leading to the tournament due to the torrential weather in Dallas, the USA will be hoping the rest makes him stronger as he looks to seize his chance to star on home soil.  

Openers Monank Patel and Steven Taylor have both been in fine form leading to the tournament and could provide the USA a great chance of creating an upset if both get set and score heavy. The pair seem to complement each other, and both bring an abundance of experience to the side, with Patel captaining the side. Both batters have scored 174 runs in their last 5 innings at a similar strike rate, with Patel a consistent performer behind the stumps, in addition to the off-break option with Taylor. Expect both to play important parts across both innings in the game.  

Harmeet Singh has forced his way straight into the side and demonstrated the threat he poses since his debut against Canada in April 2024. The left-arm orthodox spinner has only taken 6 wickets in his 6 games for the USA, including a 4-fer against Canada, but has been economical and offered some important quick runs at the death.  

Form Guide  

Since the USA qualified automatically as hosts and the large player base at their disposal, the squad was not set and they were arguably lacking in T20 game time prior to their April series against Canada, however, the USA won the series 4-0 in a dominating display and went on to follow this up with a historic 2-1 series win against Bangladesh. Despite these impressive series, the squad might be missing out on some practice following the cancellation of their two warm-up matches against Bangladesh and Nepal.  

Expectations 

The playing group will likely be feeling confident following the two series wins leading to the tournament and will be looking to capitalise on this momentum and create a mark on their home World Cup. India and Pakistan will be incredibly tough opposition to overcome but will certainly view Canada and Ireland as games they can win.  

Prediction: Wins against Canada and Ireland will be the goal, but Ireland field very strong and very settled currently. A 4th place finish in the group is a likely outcome.  

USA Squad

Monank Patel (C, WK), Aaron Jones, Andries Gous, Milind Kumar, Nitish Kumar, Shayan Jahangir, Corey Anderson, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar, Jessy Singh, Noshtush Kenjige, Nisarg Patel, Harmeet Singh 

Coach: Stuart Law 

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