The former USA vice-captain Aaron Jones has chosen to miss the Namibia tour with the USA as he opted to honour his CPL contract with St. Lucia Kings.
It is reported that the players’ decision has upset with the selection committee and the officials at USA Cricket after heading to the CPL 2024 despite ‘warnings’ from the cricket board.
Jones played as a local player in the competition and did not require an ‘NOC’ from USA Cricket and helped the St Lucia Kings to win their Maiden CPL title after defeating Guyana Warriors in the final.
Meanwhile, Andries Gous has joined the national team after cutting his commitment with Trinbago Knight Riders. United States has stayed unbeaten in the 4 ODI games in Namibia in Jones’ absence which has fortified the selectors to take the bold call to dismiss Jones.
He was recalled for the T20I series after his heroics in the CPL final but is also likely to lose his spot in the T20I team after a string of low scores in the Nepal T20I series last week.
Jones has been an integral part of USA’s white ball squad since his debut in 2018. On the other hand, 21-year-old young pacer Sanjay Krishnamurthy has been in the lights of the exploits in the Major and Minor League by his way, with a knock of 167* which turned up the favour for USA-A while touring Scotland.
With his stunning temperament, Krishnamurthy helped the Dallas heat picking a tally of 341 against quality attack to Stake his comeback into the national team.
The board has announced to the team that USA-A embarked on their chase. It may have been wiser to pick the team after the end of the game for which selections game were held in the first place, Krishnamoorthy has been added as the 16th member of the squad.
United States are set to play their first game of the tri-series against Nepal on October 25 at Prairie View Cricket Complex.
USA Squad: Monank Patel (captain), Smit Patel, Sai Teja Mukkamalla, Milind Kumar, Shayan Jahangir, Andries Gous, Harmeet Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar, Juanoy Drysdale, Utkarsh Srivastava, Jasdeep Singh, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Yasir Mohammad, Sushant Modani
