Monank Patel replaces Saurabh Netravalkar as USA’s T20I captain

USA T20I captain Saurabh Netravalkar is set to be replaced by Monank Patel, the Chair of the Men’s National Selection Panel, Michael Voss, confirmed on October 20. Patel will lead the USA in the upcoming ICC Americas T20 World Cup Qualifier, scheduled to be held in Antigua from November 7th to 14th. Aaron Jones has been named Patel’s deputy.

Netravalkar’s position was under question after a string of losses for the USA in the World Cup League 2 ODI where the team lost as many as eight of their last nine encounters. The USA also could not proceed ahead at the T20 World Cup Global Qualifier in 2019 after being handed defeats from Canada and Bermuda under his captaincy.

However, Netravalkar continues to remain USA’s One Day International captain, and is understood to “work closely together with the split captaincy roles in the two primary formats for Team USA”.

“The appointment of Monank Patel as USA’s new T20I Captain comes after the 50-over captain, Saurabh Netravalkar, requested the opportunity to focus fully on his bowling in the shortest format of the game,” said National Selector Max Voss.

“He had done that with great success during the recent Minor League Cricket competition, and the Selection Panel were fully supportive of his decision. Aside from recent performances with the national team on its ODI tour of Oman, there have been some fantastic performances across the summer in the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket and which the Selection Panel took into account as part of its selection process.

“We were especially pleased that the overall competition for places in the Men’s T20 national team is stronger than ever before, and there are no doubt a number of players who will considering themselves very unlucky to miss out, but they will continue to be monitored and will remain very firmly in the minds of the Selection Panel moving forward,” he added.

The USA team will arrive in St. John’s, Antigua on November 4 for the event.

USA Team: Monank Patel (c), Aaron Jones (vc), Ali Khan, Elmore Hutchinson, Gajanand Singh, Ian Holland, Jaskaran Malhotra, Karima Gore, Nisarg Patel, Rusty Theron, Saurabh Netravalkar, Steven Taylor, Trinson Carmichael, Xavier Marshall