There are many Indian origin players who currently cricket play for other nations. The story goes back to the 1930’s when Iftikhar Ali Pataudi played for England or when the great Ranjitsinhji played for England and also county cricket for Sussex.
Gul Mohammad of Pakistan also played for India before its independence. But there are also many Indian-origin players who have represented other countries in the youth (Under-19) teams.
Let’s have a look at 5 Indian origin players who played cricket for Under-19 teams of other countries:
1) Nasser Hussain (England)
Nasser Hussain was the captain of the English Cricket Team for quite some time. He led England to 17 Test wins from 45 matches between 1999 and 2003 and his Test win percentage of was higher than any of the previous 5 captains.
He played 96 Test matches for the Three Lions and scored 14 centuries at an average of 37.18. Having played for the England Youth Team back in 1988 Youth Cricket World Cup where they lost to Australia in the semi-finals.
Hussain was born in Chennai (then Madras), on 28 March 1968. His father Raza Jawad Hussain was an Indian and a cricketer while his mother was an Anglo-Indian. Brought into cricket by his father, they moved to England when Nasser was young and joined Essex in 1987 and he made his ODI debut for England against Pakistan at Nagpur on 30 October 1989.
2) Ish Sodhi (New Zealand)
The Kiwi leg-spinner was one of the finds of the ICC World T20 2016 and Ish Sodhi seems to be a bright prospect for the team from Down-Under.
He has already played 11 Tests, 10 ODIs and 10 Twenty-20s. Inderbir Singh Sodhi was born on 31 October 1992 in Ludhiana and played for New-Zealand in the 2012 Under-19 World Cup.
Sodhi’s parents shifted to South Auckland when he was young and he was an underrated bowler during his initial playing days. After he started playing under the coaching of Dipak Patel and Matt Horne, his bowling ability started being noticed.
3) Gurinder Sandhu (Australia)
Gurinder Sandhu played only two ODIs for Australia making his debut against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 18 January 2015. He is a right arm fast-medium bowler who plays for New South Wales in the domestic circuit.
He was born on 14 June 1993 in New South Wales, Blacktown and Sandhu is the first male cricketer of Indian-origin to play for the Australian national team.
The right arm bowler represented Australia in the 2012 Under-19 Cricket World Cup having made his senior debut for Sydney Thunders in the 2011-12 Big Bash League. The first first-class cricket match he played was for New South Wales at the end of the 2012-13 Australian season.
Sandhu also played for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.
4) Rivash Gobind (South Africa)
Rivash Gobind never played an International match, but he was pretty successful in the domestic circuit.
The southpaw played 45 first class matches and scored 2282 runs at an average of 32.60. Govind scored 5 centuries with a top score of 130 not out.
The Indian-origin cricketer played the 2000 Under-19 Cricket World Cup for South Africa and has captained KwaZulu-Natal as well as the South African Under-19 team, thus becoming the first Indian to captain a South African national team.
Gobind was appointed a coach of South African domestic side Dolphins in 2012. He led them to a Ram SlamT20 Challenge in 2013-14.
5) Samit Patel (England)
Samit Patel’s tenure with the Three Lions was not a memorable one. He played 6 Tests and 36 ODIs for England and picked up 24 wickets in ODIs. He scored a career best of 70 not out against India at Mohali back in 2011, but England lost the game.
In 2012, he became the 651st Test player for England in a match against Sri Lanka. Samit was born in Leicester on 30 November 1984. His father Rohit and mother Sejal were originated from Gujarat, India. Cricket runs in the Patel household as Samit’s brother Akhil also played for Nottinghamshire and made his debut in 2009.
Samit played for the England U-19 team in the 2002 U-19 World Cup. Before his debut in 2012, he was selected in the England squad for the ODIs and Twenty-20s for the tour of West Indies back in 2009 but was eventually dropped because of fitness concerns.
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