By C. Perera, JadeTimes News
In 2010, a group of USA club cricket players convened in Stubbs Park in Centerville, Ohio, for their customary summer practice session. One of them was Ali Khan, a 19 year old who had just moved from Attock, Pakistan, and had never played cricket before using a tape ball. Everyone took notice of his outstanding real ball play right away, and that weekend he was named in the starting lineup.
Over ten years later, during a warmup series for the T20 World Cup, Khan, now thirty three, finished the second of three games against Bangladesh at Houston's Prairie View Ground. With one game remaining, the USA may win the series for the first time ever against a country that plays Test cricket. They were up 1to10 in the series. But it appeared like the game was slipping away as having four wickets in hand, including Shakib Al Hasan, who was on 30 off 22 balls, requiring 21 runs from the next 18 balls. After bowling Shakib with his first delivery, trapping the new batsman leg before wicket with his fourth, and taking a vital catch with his tenth ball in the last over, Khan's return to the attack proved to be decisive.
The USA won by six runs thanks to his three wickets for eleven runs. Khan was upbeat about the impending T20 World Cup, which begins with a match against Canada, and referred to the victory against a top 10 T20 team as a noteworthy accomplishment. Khan didn't come to the US for cricket at first, but he soon got interested and went to many games throughout the Midwest while juggling his job as a mobile sales representative.
After being seen by Courtney Walsh in 2015, Khan's cricket career took off, and he was able to play professionally for a while with the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League. Following his recovery from injuries, Dwayne Bravo gave him another shot. He flourished with the Trinbago Knight Riders and finally gained access to domestic competitions in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Indian Premier League. Due to poor facilities, Khan has stopped playing club cricket in Dayton, but he still has vivid memories of the USA squad, which is primarily made up of immigrants just like him.
Former members of the South African first class cricket team, the Indian Under 19 World Cup team, the Indian Premier League, Pakistan's Under 19 team, New Zealand's Corey Anderson, and Canada's Nitish Kumar are among the squad. Khan backs his elderly Pakistani settlement of Jafar with plans to construct a new cricket ground there highlights the distinctive makeup of the USA team, which reflects the country's reputation as a land of opportunity by bringing together people from many backgrounds, ethnicities, and countries. As they get ready for the T20 World Cup, he thinks this is what makes the team unique.