4 uncapped players of Asian descent included in USA squad for CPL invitational match

The United States of America’s 12-man squad set to take on a Carribean Premier League (CPL) Invitational XI will feature as many as four uncapped players with the likes of Arjun Thyagarajan, Nisarg Patel, Usman Rafiq and Prashanth Nair – all having their roots in Asia – being included for the contest on Friday.

Six of the other eight players of the team were part of USA's most recent tournament squad, in Ireland, at the 2015 World T20 Qualifier. The match will be played at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida, the same venue where all the other six matches of the USA leg of the CPL is being held.

Talking about the peculiar team selection made by the USA selectors and announced by USA national selector Barney Jones, Tom Evans, ICC Americas high-performance consultant, said that the 12 members selected by the selectors were those the selectors have high expectations from and with basically an all-star CPL XI contesting the match, they felt the need to bring the mix of experienced and uncapped players together as a team against quality opposition.

"The 12 for tomorrow is a bit of a combination," Evans said. "Twelve guys that we want to have a look at. Some guys who have played a bit, some guys who haven't. Twelve guys who we're keen to have a look at."

As for the CPL squad, St Lucia Zouks and Barbados Tridents have three representatives each while Australia’s Alex Ross, who plays for the Tridents, is the lone representative in the squad who isn't from the ICC Americas members. The CPL XI will be captained by Shamarh Brooks and coached by CPL international director of cricket Tom Moody, assisted by St Lucia Zouks assistant coach Trevor Penney.

The USA leg of the CPL, the first time the tournament has seen its matches being played in the country, kicked off on Thursday with the Barbados Tridents taking on Guyana Amazon Warriors and the invitational match will kick off proceedings on Friday ahead of the clash between St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Trinbago Knight Riders.

The full squad details of the invitational match are given below:

USA squad: Alex Amsterdam, Fahad Babar, Adil Bhatti, Akeem Dodson, Elmore Hutchinson, Prashanth Nair, Nisarg Patel, Usman Rafiq, Saqib Saleem, Jessy Singh, Nicholas Standford, Arjun Thyagarajan

CPL squad: Shamarh Brooks (C, Patriots), Steven Katwaroo (WK, Amazon Warriors), Kyle Corbin (Tridents), Nitish Kumar (Zouks), Jeremiah Louis (Patriots), Gidron Pope (Zouks), Kristopher Ramsarran (Zouks), Alex Ross (Tallawahs), Shemar Springer (Tridents), Hamza Tariq (Knight Riders), Steven Taylor (Tridents), O'Shane Thomas (Tallawahs)