5 India-born players who will play for other nations in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifiers
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifiers will start this Sunday in Zimbabwe. Ten teams, namely Nepal, Netherlands, USA, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Oman, Scotland, Sri Lanka, and UAE, will compete to secure a place in the 50-over Cricket World Cup, scheduled to take place in India later this year.
Only two out of the 10 teams will make it to the mega event. Former world champions Sri Lanka and West Indies are the favorites to qualify, but one of the other eight teams could spring a surprise as well.
The Indian team qualified directly for the Cricket World Cup 2023 being the hosts of the tournament. Interestingly, a few India-born players could play against India in front of an Indian audience if their team performs well in the Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.
Here's a list of the five India-born players who will play for another nation in the ICC CWC 2023 Qualifiers.
#1 Karthik Meiyappan, UAE
UAE's leg-spin bowler Karthik Meiyappan was born in Chennai. He has been a net bowler for IPL franchises Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings. Meiyappan grabbed the headlines last year when he took the first hat-trick of the T20 World Cup 2022.
22-year-old UAE’s bowler Karthik Meiyappan became only the 5th bowler to clinch a hat-trick in the history of T20 World Cup 🫡
Meiyappan was born in Chennai, India.
📸: Getty Images
#srivsuae #t20worldcup #cricket https://t.co/Q7exwMPYtC
He was recently in action in a three-match ODI series against West Indies, where he bagged two wickets in two matches. The leg-spinner will be keen to guide the UAE team to the mega event in India.
#2 Monank Patel, USA
USA captain Monank Patel was born in the Anand district of Gujarat. Monank represented the Gujarat team at the U-16 and U-19 level before moving to the United States.
He is a top-order wicketkeeper-batter. So far in his career, Monank Patel has scored 1,370 runs in 43 ODIs. He has recorded two hundreds and nine fifties. It will be interesting to see if Monank can lead USA to the Cricket World Cup 2023 qualification.
#3 Sushant Modani, USA
Another USA squad member to feature on this list is Sushant Modani. He was born in Jalna, Maharashtra. Modani is a middle-order batter, who also bowls right-arm off-spin.
Modani has represented USA in 25 ODI matches. He has aggregated 705 runs at a strike rate of 64.20. Notably, he has recorded one century and five fifties.
#4 Vriitya Aravind, UAE
Vriitya Aravind is another Chennai-born cricketer who will play for UAE in the Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023. Aravind is a 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batter. He came into the limelight while playing for the MI Emirates team in the International League T20.
Aravind has played 49 ODI matches for UAE, scoring 1,536 runs at a strike rate of 71.71. UAE fans will hope that their wicketkeeper-batter scores heaps of runs in the upcoming tournament.
#5 Saurabh Netravalkar, USA
Saurabh Netravalkar is the biggest name to feature on this list. He was India's squad member in the U-19 World Cup 2010. The likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Sandeep Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Harshal Patel, and Jaydev Unadkat were his teammates in that competition.
Netravalkar is a left-arm pace-bowling all-rounder from Mumbai. He played domestic cricket for Mumbai before moving to the USA to work as an engineer for Oracle.
After moving to the United States, Netravalkar reignited his passion for cricket as he started practicing and soon found himself in the USA team. He has also captained the American team in international cricket.