United States of America captain Monank Patel won the toss and elected to bowl first against Canada, in the opening match of ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Sunday (June 2). The match is being played at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas, Texas. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard)
Explaining his rationale for fielding first, Patel said: "Looks a fresh wicket. We will have more clarity with target in mind."
On playing the T20 World Cup for the first time, the USA skipper said: "Amazing feeling. We have sacrificed a lot in the last five years."
His Canada counterpart Saad Bin Zafar said: "Surface is good, don't mind batting first. It's a World Cup and we have a full squad, so confident we'll do well. First time we're playing in the tournament, hope to do it with a win."
The hosts are entering the tournament proper without any on-field action as both their warm-up games were abandoned due to unfavourable weather. USA's first prep game against Bangladesh was called without a ball bowled due to thunderstorms and tornado alert in Texas. In the second game against Nepal, Monank Patel won the toss and elected to bat first, but no play was possible amid the downpour and the match had to be called off without a ball bowled.
In the preliminary stage of the T20 World Cup, USA are in Group A with India, Pakistan, Canada and Ireland being the other teams.
Playing XIs
USA: Steven Taylor, Monank Patel (wk/c), Andries Gous, Aaron Jones, Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Jasdeep Singh, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar.
Canada: Aaron Johnson, Navneet Dhaliwal, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva(w), Dilpreet Singh, Saad Bin Zafar(c), Nikhil Dutta, Dillon Heyliger, Kaleem Sana, Jeremy Gordon.
The match is historic and rings in a number of firsts. It is a reprise of cricket's oldest international face-off - USA had met Canada in a three-day contest in New York, back in 1844. A whole 180 years later, the two teams are locking horns again, and for the first time at a marquee global event.
Both sides are making their respective debuts at the T20 World Cup, and the match will be the first-ever World Cup game played in the United States. That it is the 2024 edition opener only adds to the sheen and excitement.
