After captaining India to an Beneath-19 World Cup title in 2012 — with arguably the best efficiency of his life — Unmukt Chand struggled to even watch his nation play on TV.
He donned the royal blue and molten orange jersey as a part of India A — the second rung of the nationwide group ladder — however Chand’s efficiency dipped and his title finally disappeared from the game-day roster for his house state group in Delhi
After years gunning for India’s fundamental group, Chand discovered himself circling the fringes. His early stardom by no means fairly translated right into a secure senior profession as alternatives dried up in a system overflowing with expertise. By 2021, the dream was nonetheless alive, however the runway had light and Chand determined to retire from all types of Indian cricket.
“To let go of that feeling was something which took me time, and obviously I had to do my own catharsis. I had self-identity doubts,” Chand stated.
Unmukt Chand revived his cricket profession when he moved to america and finally joined Main League Cricket’s L.A. Knight Riders.
(Andrew Hancock/For The Occasions)
With the braveness to begin over, he unloaded his luggage on American soil, the place the pitch was nonetheless being laid. What the U.S. lacked in custom, it made up for in potential, Chand stated — seeing a future in a spot that wasn’t sure by his previous.
“We’ve all grown up watching American sports and the way they do sports activities, and everything around it is something very exciting,” Chand stated, “and something very different from a cricketing point of view.”
Chand and his spouse, Simran Khosla, settled on relocating to Dallas. It was a leap made solely for cricket — one which left Khosla with out work, stability or something resembling certainty.
In 2019, American Cricket Enterprises, the strategic companion of USA Cricket, pledged a $1-billion funding to jumpstart knowledgeable T20 league within the nation. T20 is a condensed, fast-paced format of the sport.
That imaginative and prescient materialized in 2023 with the debut of Main League Cricket, that includes six privately owned franchises every backed by international traders, together with a few of cricket’s most iconic manufacturers. ESPNcricinfo reported that the league will develop to eight groups in 2027, with sights set on 10 by 2031.
The purpose? Hook American to a flashier type of cricket that emphasizes fast scoring, frequent momentum swings and simply sufficient chaos to draw followers who couldn’t inform a wicket from a walk-off.
“MLC is exciting — that’s why it is attracting so many players — top players from around the world,” Chand stated. “The way they have done this competition is also very nice, the way teams are being made, the way the domestic and international representation is there.”
Whereas MLC’s launch was delayed to 2022 as a consequence of COVID-19, ACE had already been courting Chand because the type of marquee expertise who may lend legitimacy and hype to the U.S.’s cricketing scene.
L.A. Knight Riders batsman Unmukt Chand collects the ball throughout a Main League Cricket match in opposition to the Mumbai Indians New York on July 3 at Central Broward Regional Park in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)
He made his American debut in August 2021 with the Silicon Valley Strikers in Minor League Cricket, a developmental league aimed toward rising the game throughout the U.S.
“We were his biggest fans,” stated Natwar Agarwal, proprietor of the Strikers. “We always heard about him, and it was like a dream come true — Unmukt Chand is here, and there’s a possibility that he can play for our team.”
You possible wouldn’t have guessed that he’d simply crossed practically 8,000 miles or buried a dream that formed his boyhood. Chand paced the league in runs per recreation, piling up 612 runs throughout 16 innings as he piloted his group to the inaugural Minor League Cricket title.
“Players like him, … showed that a good quality of cricket can happen in the U.S.,” Agarwal stated. “Still today, I get calls from players in India, Pakistan — they want to explore the opportunity where they can come here and play.”
Chand’s championship summer time opened doorways world wide — together with Australia and Bangladesh — however none felt fairly like house till 2023, when he signed with Main League Cricket’s Los Angeles Knight Riders, the American arm of one in every of cricket’s most storied franchises.
The group, owned by Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, introduced a built-in worldwide fan base and advertising and marketing muscle hardly ever seen in American cricket.
For Chand, it was the break he’d been denied again house: a group that backed him, and a league that permit him show he nonetheless belonged on the high.
“Playing for a franchise like Knight Riders is something very special, and being in L.A. makes it big,” Chand stated. “L.A. holds a very special place — it’s been a sporting capital with obviously the Lakers, and us now being a part of the same sporting ecosystem.”
He joined the Knight Riders as a top-order batsman in a locker room stocked with worldwide firepower and helmed by Dwayne Bravo, a West Indies legend within the T20 format.
Chand made good on it.
Unmukt Chand, of the L.A. Knight Riders, is working to earn a spot on the U.S. nationwide cricket group.
(Andrew Hancock/For The Occasions)
“He’s been doing really well for us over the years — he was a really great addition to our Knight Riders team,” stated Ali Khan, Chand’s teammate and a member of the U.S. nationwide group. “Always helpful and engaged in the field, and off the field as well, he’s always there and helping the team.”
The Knight Riders languished on the backside of the desk in 2025, the place that they had the previous two seasons. However Chand’s 33.6 run common this 12 months supplied a uncommon glint in an in any other case boring stretch.
He produced an unbeaten 86 runs off 58 balls to elevate his group to one in every of its two victories this season, prompting Bravo to publicly endorse his star batsman for the U.S. nationwide group.
“This guy deserves to be involved in USA cricket team! Cricket is bigger than politics, let’s do right for these players. Well done!” Bravo wrote on an Instagram story.
And but, for Chand, a U.S. call-up stays elusive.
He was not noted of the 2024 T20 World Cup roster and handed over for a number of excursions overseas. Whereas Chand’s home performances have been stable, selectors have stated he has but to shift the choice calculus in a system that may prioritize youthful prospects.
“With the USA World Cup not happening for him, it was a little disappointing for us. Not little — very, because this is what we moved here for,” Khosla stated. “But he was at it even when things were not working for him — focusing on the process, going back to the basics, working hard, practicing more.”
Although the shortage of choice nonetheless stings, it’s not unfamiliar for Chand.
Adversity gave him a mindset he nonetheless leans on. The U.S. snubs haven’t shaken him — his focus, he says, stays to “perform wherever I can, make the best use of my opportunities and hopefully those things will happen sooner than later.”
Khosla, who met Chand throughout what she referred to as his “most struggling phase,” stated his drive by no means light — even when issues felt bleak.
What stored him going? His love for the sport.
“Cricket is his religion,” Khosla stated. “Cricket is something I would call his first wife. … If you take out his blood, his blood would be cricket.”
Chand, 32, speaks ambitiously about the way forward for American cricket — and his want to be on the middle of its growth. The indicators are there, he stated: the expansion of Main League Cricket, the inflow of youth academies, the development of stadiums and the promise of the game being featured through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
He got here to the U.S. chasing a reimagined model of a childhood dream. He didn’t must rediscover the sport — simply wanted a brand new place to maintain feeding the fireplace. His journey is chronicled in a documentary that was just lately chosen for screening by the Dallas Worldwide Movie Competition.
“U.S. is my new home, and I’m going to be here only,” Chand stated. “Playing for USA, playing MLC, playing other franchises around the world is the way to go forward. And cricket has definitely been on the rise. … I look forward to the next few years in USA. It’s going to be exciting.”
