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Former India Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Unmukt Chand recalled difficult time when he didn't find his name in USA's T20 World Cup 2024 squad. The 31-year-old moved to USA to fulfill his dream of playing international cricket and delivered with performances in T20 leagues, Minor League Cricket (MiLC) but still couldn't make it into the Monank Patel-led USA's squad. More than a couple of months after the snub, Chand broke his silence and said that it was a ‘big shock’ for him.
"That wasn't an ideal situation to be in. Because personally for me, this was what I had dreamed for the last three years. Obviously, it was a big shock. And it took me time to sort of come to terms with it. It's never easy as a player, having lost all those things back home in India, to have this one goal, which had kept me going for the last three years not happening," Unmukt said, as quoted by Cricbuzz, during the ongoing Major League Cricket (MLC) 2024.
"So it is difficult. I won't say which just happened. But it was difficult. I was not my best self for some time," he added.
Trained in Maharashtra during T20 World Cup 2024
In Los Angeles Knight Riders’ first match of the season, he contributed with a 45-ball 68 in the win against Texas Super Kings. The Delhi-born batter revealed that he trained under his childhood coach in Maharashtra during the World Cup as co-hosts USA created history by beating Pakistan and progressed to Super 8 stage.
"That was a very internal battle and it's a sucker basically. It keeps sucking you inside and inside," he recalled.
“That feeling would linger on for a day and then go away and then come back again. The reality would hit me in different phases. Once you keep going through that automatically you keep getting better. There comes a time when you're like it didn't happen, that's it. I'm not even thinking about it."
He will be seen in action when LA Knight Riders go up against Seattle Orcas at Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on June 9.
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