New York, May 26 (IANS): USA on Friday announced a 15-member squad and named Monank Patel as their captain for the 2023 ICC Mens Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which is set to be played from June 18-July 9.
USA will be entering the qualifying tournament to determine the last two spots for the main event in India in October-November on the back of securing the top position in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff held in Namibia in April this year.
Aaron Jones will act as deputy to Patel while the squad also features left-arm pacer Abhishek Paradkar, with Ian Holland unavailable for the tournament due to his county championship commitments with Hampshire in England.
However, pacer Ali Khan, who led the wicket-taking chart with 16 scalps, including a stunning haul of 7/42 in the key clash against Jersey, will miss the first two matches of the Cricket World Cup Qualifier for USA against West Indies and Nepal on June 18 and 20 respectively.
Khan had received a demerit point in the final game at the Qualifier Playoff after having animated exchanges with Jersey players, which meant that he would miss the next two games that USA play irrespective of the format.
Also, he had previously accumulated three demerit points. The total four demerit points over a 24-month cycle have been converted to a two-match suspension as per article 7.6 of the Code. USA are placed alongside 1975 and 1979 World Cup winners West Indies, hosts Zimbabwe, Netherlands and Nepal in Group A.
Each side will play the other teams in their group once with the top three from each group progressing to the Super Six stage. In the Super Six, they will play the sides they did not meet in the group stage.
All points won in the group stage will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the teams that fail to make it to the Super Six stage. The two top teams after the Super Six stage will contest the final, and will both progress to the main ODI World Cup event in India. For the first time in this tournament, DRS will be used for all matches from the Super Six stage onwards.
USA Squad: Monank Patel (captain), Aaron Jones (vice-captain), Abhishek Paradkar, Ali Khan, Gajanand Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Kyle Philip, Nisarg Patel, Nostush Kenjige, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Saurabh Netravalkar, Shayan Jahangir, Steven Taylor, Sushant Modani, Usman Rafiq