Canada cricket team is one of the strongest team of associate cricket nations . Associate cricket nations are nations which are yet to gain the test status from ICC.
After becoming the associate member of ICC as early in 1968, Canada has played 4 World Cup so far.
They qualified to play the 1979, 2003, 2007 and 2011 ICC World Cup.
They even beat Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup subtly telling everyone they are not be taken light at all.
Also some serious cricket fans do have the memory of their opening batsman John Davidson scoring a 67 ball hundred, the fastest at that time against West Indies
Lets look at some of the India origin players who are currently donning the jersey of Canada and playing for Canada national cricket team: –
1) Navneet Dhaliwal :- Born in Punjab, Navneet Dhaliwal is opening batsman for Canada who was also the captain for their team. At 35 years old, he is still Canada main batsman.
He was also part of Edmonton Royals in the Canada 2019 global t20 tournament and played under the captaincy of former PCB director Mohammad Hafeez.
Global 2019 t20 tournament had all the big names playing like Fafdu Plessis, Yuvraj Singh, Shoaib Malik.
Of current, Navneet main focus will be to help his team with good contributions in World Cup qualifier tournaments.( 2023-2027).
2)Harsh Thaker :- Though of Indian origin, Harsh has played Canada u19 and have toiled hard in the domestic before representing Canada.
He bats at number 5 for Canada and can also bowl few overs. He made his t20 debut way back in 2019 but for ODI, he has to wait another 4 years before playing his first game against Jersey in ICC World Cup qualifiers 2023.
At just 26 years old, he has certainly lot of time left to put on some great performances for Canada.
3) Nikhil Dutta – The next on the list Nikhil Dutta, the right arm off spinner has played t20 cricket all around the world.
He has played in Carribean Premier League (CPL), Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Born in Kuwait city to Bengali parents, the family moved to canada in 1990 and settled in Toranto.
His father Mihir Dutta, a software engineer and big fan of cricket took things in his hand when he started a cricket academy with Derek Perara, a former Canadian player from Srilanka.
Nikhil certainly has lot of experience behind him and the 29 year old will be waiting for June 2024 when he will have the chance to bowl his off breaks to India and Pakistan players.
4)Shreyas Movva – The graduate from Visveswarya Technological University, Shreyas moved to Canada to pursue masters in engineering.
He then continued to job as a software engineer and alongside kept his hopes alive to play cricket for his current country, Canada.
The 30 year old wicketkeeper batter is currently playing against Nepal. He was also the vice captain of Canada in regional 50 tournament in West Indies.
If you want to play cricket for Canada, and maybe along side do a job and still want to represent the country at highest level, may be you should connect with Shreyas Movva, because that’s what Shreyas Movva has done it.
5) Uday Bhagwan -Uday Bhagwan is also another Indian origin player recently added in Canada national team, and playing against Nepal in Canada tour of Nepal. He is a fast bowler.
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