Says USA not complacent going into the T20 World Cup curtain-raiser, despite having recently beaten Canada 4-0 as well as stunned Bangladesh
Aaron Jones is looking forward to the challenge of facing Canada in the T20 World Cup 2024 • Peter Della Penna
T20 World Cup 2024 will kick off with North American neighbours USA – who are co-hosts of the competition – and Canada facing off on Saturday in Dallas. And of course, it was these two teams that played the first ever international cricket match, all the way back in 1844. The history of the rivalry is not lost on USA vice-captain Aaron Jones.
“As everybody knows, USA and Canada played the first international game, so this has been something that was going on for years and years,” Jones said at a press conference on the eve of the World Cup opener.
“As it relates to the players, we all are friends, we’ve all played together, against one another, for years. So everybody’s good and cool, but as it relates to the fans, it’s a bit of a rivalry, we all know that. We enjoy playing against Canada, they enjoy playing against us. We know for sure it’s going to be challenging and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
In the build-up to the World Cup, USA blitzed Canada 4-0 in a T20I series in April before recording a historic series win against Bangladesh in May. But Jones is not resting on past results.
“I don’t really want to focus on the 4-0 victory in the last series [against Canada],” Jones said. “I mean, that’s gone already and, you know, the team that we played against in that series is not the exact same team we’ll be playing against tomorrow.
“It’s a World Cup game, the first World Cup game. There’s going to be pressure on both teams. And obviously we know the outstanding rivalry we have with Canada, so pressure will be on both teams. It’s whoever handles the pressure best tomorrow [that will come out on top] to be honest.”
“Definitely, we have had some great competitive cricket over the past few years against US,” Canada captain Saad Bin Zafar said. “So we are hoping that we can play entertaining cricket.”
“It’s a World Cup game, the first World Cup game. There’s going to be pressure on both teams. And obviously we know the outstanding rivalry we have with Canada, so pressure will be on both teams”
USA vice-captain Aaron Jones
Saad is also looking forward to the Canada players getting a chance to test themselves at the highest level.
“Even coming from the qualifiers, as I mentioned for all of our players, it was like a dream to represent Canada in a World Cup,” he said. “We don’t get to compete against the top nations very often. The World Cup is the only stage where we get to compete and test our skills against the very best of the world. And we have finally made it.
“It’s kind of emotional, but we were looking for this opportunity. We finally got it. And we just want to represent Canada well and to our potential play to our potential in this World Cup.”
One player who will know how it feels to turn out for the country on both sides of the border is batting-allrounder Nitish Kumar. He had played 18 T20Is for Canada between 2012 and 2019, before getting his maiden T20I for USA in the series against Canada in April this year. Jones pointed out that Nitish already had experience of taking on his old team, so he would be more than ready for them come game day.
“Obviously, he played against Canada the last time we played him in the series [in April] and he scored I think 60-something [64] in the game. He’s been gelling well, he’s been fitting in well, and I think he’s looking forward to playing against Canada.”
