Eye on the prize: USA vice-captain Jones expressed his desire to fulfill his childhood dream
Eye on the prize: USA vice-captain Jones expressed his desire to fulfill his childhood dream. USA vice-captain Aaron Jones expressed his disposition to fulfill his dream of leading his country to their first ICC T-20 World Cup in Australia in the other half of the year 2022.
To qualify, the team has to first negotiate a very difficult qualifying round with the Zimbabwe team. The team is under the obligation to finish in the top two at Qualifier B which is set to begin on Monday, the 11th of July 2022.
Jones commented, “It won’t be an easy task, with the USA taking on Jersey, Singapore and hosts Zimbabwe in the group stage of the eight-team tournament before a possible cut-throat semi-final clash against a different opponent from the opposing group.”
But Jones shows confidence in his team’s ability. His team had already displayed their capabilities in the two warm matches. They defeated Jersey at the start of this month.
These victories gave enough matter to Jones to have his confidence in his team and to hope of reaching great heights in T20 cricket at the World Cup in Australia. On the other hand, they are set to host the 2024 World Cup.
“If we could get to World Cup so you get to the highest level of cricket, to compete with the West Indies, Australia, India, all the teams that are playing full member cricket for sure, it would open a lot of doors,” Jones said.
“Not only for us but definitely the youngsters coming up in the USA. We know for sure that the USA is a big, big market in terms of fans that watch and support cricket.”
“So we really, truly, want to get to the next level for them and for the youngsters coming up behind us as well.”
Jones was born in New York, then he moved to the Caribbean at the age of four. He made many friends and former teammates that play with Barbados domestically and with West Indies at the international level.
The 27-year-old vice-captain said that he had played with the team members on the other side which was giving him the incentive to perform well in the upcoming qualifier round on the 11th of July 2022. He has this confidence that he acknowledges he will have plenty of people he knows watching on.
Aaron Jones is the second leading run-scorer in both T20Is and ODIs from the team. He knows that the pressure will be on him to deliver a good performance in Zimbabwe.
USA squad: Monank Patel (c), Ali Khan, Aaron Jones, Cameron Stevenson, Jaskaran Malhotra, Gajanand Singh, Marty Kain, Nisarg Patel, Saurabh Netravalkar, Rusty Theron, Steven Taylor, Yasir Mohammed, Sushant Modani, Vatsal Vaghela.