While India knows a handful of its U-19 World Cup winning stars, but not many might have heard Unmukt Chand’s name. For the unversed, the Delhi lad led the India Colts to their third title win in 2012, but due to lack of inspiring performances in the domestic circuit, he could never make it big.
Now, having moved to the USA in 2021, Unmukt finally has a chance to make his international debut, and is in with a fair chance to make it to the T20 World Cup 2024 squad as well. In fact, he could be in the running to lead Team USA. And with that, he could just be up against Team India’s stars like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah, against whom Unmukt has played a fair share of cricket.
“Something which would be very strange (laughs), but I think since I’ve retired from India, my next goal was always to sort of play against India, and not in any bad blood but keen to test myself out against the best team in the world” Unmukt told Cricbuzz.
Unmukt captained the India A side for a long time, and was also in the probable list for the 2013 Champions Trophy, and the 2014 T20 World Cup, but failed to break into the Indian team. Having said that, he did recall playing against some of the stars now.
The 30-year-old also remembered his battle against Bumrah, when the latter was a relatively unknown commodity, and was plying his trade for Gujarat. “He got the better of me the last time I faced him in the Vijay Hazare trophy final,” Unmukt added.
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