Aaron Jones dropped from USA squad for prioritising CPL over national duty

Aaron Jones has been dropped from USA's squad for World Cup League 2 (WCL-2) tri-series scheduled to commence on Friday, October 25. The board decided to drop the star player as he opted to feature for St. Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League over USA’s Namibia tour. As a result, the selection committee decided to field an unchanged squad that last toured Namibia for WCL-2 in September.

As per a Cricbuzz report, Jones travelling to the Caribbean, neglecting the warnings from the board, has irked the selection committee. He entered CPL as a local player and did not require an 'NOC' from USA Cricket. Jones has been an integral part of the USA team since his debut in 2018. 

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Meanwhile, he was clinical in CPL and his performance garnered immense attention. He was subsequently summoned for the T20I series, but the reports further add that it is a matter of time before he loses a spot in the shortest format. Apart from Jones, Sanjay Krishnamurthy, who scored an unbeaten 167 for USA-A against Scotland, has been overlooked. 

Krishnamurthy would have had mixed emotions after the surreal knock as the team was announced amidst USA’s 341-run chase against Namibia, where he was orchestrating a 167-run knock. Moreover, the 21-year-old was not even included as the 16^th man in the squad. USA will commence the campaign with their first game against Nepal on Friday.

USA Squad

Monank Patel (c), Smit Patel, Sai Teja Mukkamalla, Milind Kumar, Shayan Jahangir, Andries Gous, Harmeet Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar, Juanoy Drysdale, Utkarsh Srivastava, Jasdeep Singh, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Yasir Mohammad, Sushant Modani