Coaching kids, training indoors, USA's Indian origin cricket captain Monank gets ready for bigger battles

cricket captain Monank Patel believes that co-hosting 2025 Champions Trophy will help raise the profile of the game in his adopted country. Patel, a former Gujarat U-19 player, is a rare breed as he plays cricket for a living and is now a national captain, having primarily practised without a coach and largely indoors. "Cricket is my full-time career.

For a living, I coach kids three times a week and it has always been a full-time option for me," Patel, who was recently in Mumbai, told PTI in an interaction. There is big Guajarati population in the United States and Patel got a green card back in 2010 and permanently shifted to New Jersey in 2016. "I was born in India and I got green card in 2010.

I moved to USA permanently in 2016. I live in New Jersey," Patel added. Patel, a wicketkeeper-batter, has so far played 19 ODIs and 16 T20Is, having made his debut in 2018.

"The USA team has lot of potential to compete against teams at higher level. We have been playing a decent level of cricket for last three years and we had played against teams like Scotland and UAE. I feel we can compete against the better sides in coming says," said Patel.

The likes of well-known Indian domestic players like Unmukt Chand, Mannan Sharma have now migrated to the USA and Patel believes that it will be up to the cricket board to see if they are good enough to don the national jersey in near future. "The quality of competition for places in USA side has improved, which attracts many international players but selection process purely depends on selection committee and the cricket board," he said. The level of cricket in the United States have improved with at least 10 states having multiple turf wickets and more than 20 state of art indoor