DALLAS, Texas, CMC – Joint-hosts United States named two players with Caribbean ties, vice-captain Aaron Jones and left-handed opener Stephen Taylor, in their provisional 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup.
Jones, 29, a right-handed batsman and occasional leg-spin bowler, was born in the borough of Queen’s in the state of New York to Barbadian parents, and he has become a fixture for the Americans over the past five years, while simultaneously appearing in senior West Indies domestic tournaments.
He has played 23 Twenty20 Internationals for the United States and has scored 341 runs from 21 innings at an average of 24.35 with a top score of 50 against Bermuda three years ago in Antigua during a World Cup qualifying tournament, and he has bagged six wickets along the way.
Jones played eight matches for Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners in the West Indies Super50 Cup in 2016 and 2017, nine matches for Barbados Pride in the West Indies Championship between 2017 and 2019, and he also played with the USA in the 2019 and 2020 Super50 Cup.
He was also drafted by the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament, but he never played.
Taylor, 30, was born in the city of Hialeah in the state of Florida to Jamaican parents, and he too, has become a fixture for the Americans over the past five years, and he has been described as one of the best homegrown talents in the modern generation of the sport in the USA.
He is one of a few Americans to carve out a place for in T20 franchise leagues, securing a Caribbean Premier League contract nine years ago with Barbados Tridents, where he has developed under former USA coach Robin Singh.
After one more season with Tridents, Taylor switched to Guyana Amazon Warriors for the 2017 CPL, but he only managed two matches, and took a large pay cut to move to the now defunct Jamaica Tallawahs the following year.
He also played three matches for Jamaica Scorpions in the West Indies Championship in 2017, and the West Indies Super50 Cup in 2017 and 2018, and he – like Jones – also has played with the USA in the 2019 and 2020 Super50 Cup.
The American squad also includes ambidextrous all-rounder Corey Anderson, who played the 2015 One-day International World Cup and the T20 World Cup in 2014 and 2016 for New Zealand.
The 35-year-old has been known for his hard-hitting batting, but he took it to a new level on New Year’s Day 2014 when he set what was then the world record for the fastest ODI hundred off 36 balls for the Black Caps, as the New Zealanders are known, against West Indies in Queenstown.
It came a few months after Anderson scored a century in his second Test, but he failed to fulfil his early potential and he endured several spells of injury that interrupted his career with shoulder and groin injuries.
This forced him to drop out of the longer formats of the game six years ago before he quit New Zealand cricket two years later.
Anderson became eligible last year to represent the United States, where he had been living over the past four years, and he made his debut for them in the home series against Canada in March.
The squad is also bolstered with the presence of 33-year-old, Pakistan-born pacer Ali Khan, who has become a fan favourite in the CPL playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders over the past eight years – but he has only played six T20Is to go with his 15 ODI appearances.
All World Cup provisional squads may be changed up to May 25, after which any alterations will require approval from the technical committee of the tournament.
The 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup will take place in the Caribbean and the United States from June 1 to 29.
The United States have been drawn in Group A and will play all of their group matches on home soil, where they will face neighbours Canada, as well as the Test nations of India, Ireland, and Pakistan.
They open the tournament with their first two matches at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas, where they play the tournament opener against the Canadians on June 1 and take on the Pakistanis five days later.
The Americans complete the group stage against India on June 12 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in the state of New York and Ireland two days later at the Central Broward Regional Park in the state of Florida.
Squad:
Monank Patel (captain), Aaron Jones (vice-captain), Andries Gous, Corey Anderson, Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh, Jessy Singh, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Nitish Kumar, Noshtush Kenjige, Saurabh Nethralvakar, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir.
