Former Indian U-19 skipper Unmukt Chand has decided to play Minor League Cricket, a national T20 competition in the United States after announcing his retirement from Indian cricket. He will make his debut in the tournament for Silicon Valley Strikersagainst the Socal Lashings on Saturday. He has also relocated to San Francisco Bay Area and also has signed a multi-year deal with the Major League Cricket. Chand was considered almost as the next Virat Kohli of Indian cricket after his U-19 success but did not get to represent India in any of the formats.
🔥 NEWS: @UnmuktChand9 has joined Major League Cricket with a multi-year agreement to play & support the growth of cricket in 🇺🇸.
Unmukt joins the @sv_strikers for this #MinorLeagueCricket season and will play this weekend!
Welcome, Unmukt! ➡️ https://t.co/COuICeJYU6 pic.twitter.com/B14nlN4d0Z
— Minor League Cricket (@MiLCricket) August 13, 2021
He took to Twitter to confirm his retirement from Indian Cricket. In an emotional message, Unmukt Chand thanked different people for laying a helping hand in his journey in Indian cricket.
T1- On to the next innings of my life #JaiHind🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/fEEJ9xOdlt
— Unmukt Chand (@UnmuktChand9) August 13, 2021
Chand also shared a video clip of the 2012 U-19 final against Australia. He scored an unbeaten 111 in a chase to help India win the U19 title.
T3- On to the next innings of my life #JaiHind🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/w84kWeCqhM
— Unmukt Chand (@UnmuktChand9) August 13, 2021
Unmukt Chand A Promising Prospect In Domestic Cricket
The former Indian-U19 skipper had a brief IPL career as well. Having made his debut in 2011, he played 21 games and scored 300 runs with one fifty-plus scores. In the seasons that he plated, he played for Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils.
Chand would consider himself unlucky to miss out on India cap due to the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma amongst others playing in a similar era with him. With the standard of batting continuing to reach new heights in India, Chand fell prey to a rich vein of competition both an international and domestic level.
“I don’t know how I should be feeling cause honestly I am still figuring it out. The very thought of not being able to represent my country again literally stops my heartbeat for a while” he wrote in one of his messages.
Chand played 67 first-class games scoring 3379 runs at an average of 31.57. His List A numbers reads a bit better scoring 4505 runs at an average of 41.33 in 120 outings. He played 77 T20 games scoring 1565 runs at an average of 22.35 and a strike rate of 116.09.
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