Nosthush Kenjige: Spotlight on the Auburn-Born Cricketer Who Led USA to Victory Over Pakistan

Nosthush Kenjige was a key player as Alabama caused one of cricket’s major realignments this Thursday. In a super over at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, having played their first ever ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the U.S. shocked the world by beating titans Pakistan. His origin from Auburn significantly contributed to his side’s victory which was partly theirs too.

With only a handful of players on the team being born in the U.S., Kenjige took three wickets and ceded 30 runs in four years during his spell, which was a monumental performance as far as cricket is concerned.

The US National Team battles a formidable opponent, India, at nine-thirty in the morning Central Time on Wednesday at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in East Meadow, New York, for a chance to go top of pool A ICC Men’s T20 World Cup standings as both sides come in unbeaten from two matches each. The best sides from the four pools will progress to the Super 8 phase. Another win is needed for Team America out of the remaining two fixtures (Ireland or India).

Here is information about Kenjige. This includes his place of birth, how he got into USA cricket, and so on.

Where was Nosthush Kenjige born?

Kenjige has a unique background. Born on March 2, 1991, in Auburn, his father used to be an agricultural researcher at Tuskegee University. Their family later moved back to India when he was still less than a year old. Kenjige came back to the United States in 2015 with his degree in biotechnology from Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering. He initially set up base in Virginia before later relocating to New York where he was serving in the capacity of a biological technician.

Nosthush Kenjige’s path to USA National Cricket Team

Kenjige’s first sport when he got back to the US was squash but then he later joined local New York leagues as stated in his United States team roster bio despite being full-time employed and concentrating on his career whose main activity involves receiving salaries.

“In hindsight, I was just drifting without direction. However, a year later I Joined Columbia Cricket Club in New York, which rekindled my passion for the sport,” Kenjige told India Times.

In 2016 Kenjige applied for and was selected to take part in the USA Combine which was taking place at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx. Among the first thirty players that were chosen, he did not make the final cut expected later in September. Well, as we speak he has been shortlisted among fourteen who will travel to Uganda following a wonderful performance during the late 2016 camp held in Houston.

According to cricket.com, Kenjige was sacked from a full employment role after he chose to accompany the US cricket team to Uganda. He has played in 40 ODIs (one-day international) and six T20I matches for the U.S. since debuting in 2019.

Nosthush Kenjige’s role in T20 World Cup upset over Pakistan

On April 7, 2024, against Canada, Kenjige played his first T20I for the USA. Although Kenjige was absent in the U.S. game, he played against Pakistan and took a career-best three wickets in a match. As a matter of fact, there was a time when he took only four wickets during his T20 international career, until recently, when he made a name for himself by taking down one of the world’s strongest cricket teams

At the World Cup when it opened, Pakistan was the world’s sixth-best team whereas USA was at position 18. During the third over of the match, Nitish Kumar caught a ball bowled by Kenjige who was the third baseman of Pakistan Usman Khan who was a left-handed spinning bowler on his first delivery.

Kenjige took Pakistan power hitter Shadab Khan out through a catch by Saurabh Netravalkar in the 13th over and on the following delivery, inflicted an LBW judgement on Azam Khan meaning that the ball had hit the batsman’s pads without touching the bat itself so as not to strike the wicket thanks to fielder being in a line of play.

Although Kenjige is a left-arm spinner, he is classified as a right-handed batsman. Kenjige’s first game for the US in an ODI was against UAE on December 8, 2019.