IPL 2020: Pakistan-born Ali Khan becomes first American player to sign up for IPL team; details here
Meet the first American player to have signed up for an IPL team. Ali Khan, born in Pakistan, has been picked by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for IPL 2020 in the UAE
FollowBengaluru: Fast bowler Ali Khan has become the first American cricketer to sign up for an IPL team. He was chosen as a replacement player by the Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for IPL 2020.
According to a report on espncricinfo website on Saturday (September 12), Ali was signed up as a replacement for England’s Harry Gurney, who opted out of the Twenty20 league.
The 29-year-old Pakistan-born Ali, was recently part of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) which won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL 2020) title. TKR and KRR’s owners are the same.
In CPL 2020, the right-arm paceman Ali took eight wickets in eight matches. TKR won the title with a record 12 wins in a row.
TKR all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who plays for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), shared a video on his Instagram stories where he is seen with other players including Ali on a plane to Dubai. He captioned it, “Next stop Dubai”.
So far, Ali has played one ODI for USA. According to espncricinfo, he moved from Pakistan to the US at the age of 18.
Last year, Ali was in the list of players for IPL auction. However, he went unsold. “First of all, it’s a great honour to be the only USA player in the draft. I was in the auction last year but wasn’t picked, which was tough as I thought my chances were pretty good. This year, if I get picked, it’ll be something of a bonus. Since I started playing seriously, the IPL has been the one I’ve targeted. It’d be a dream come true,” he had told Sportstar.
