Delhi: Just a few hours ago, two more names were added to the list of Indian domestic players who played T20 International matches for any other country. These names are of Akashdeep Nath and Harpreet Singh. Both of them played T20 International for UAE in Nepal Tour.

Akashdeep Nath: Right-handed batsman and part-time medium-pacer, played for Uttar Pradesh, was the vice-captain in India’s Under-19 World Cup winning team in 2012, hero of Uttar Pradesh Under-19 team’s Vinoo Mankad Trophy win in 2011–12 season, got picked by Gujarat Lions for IPL in 2016 and played a total of 16 matches for 3 teams. No good quality match was played in India since playing in the UP T20 League in 2024. Scored 53* and 17* in the first two matches for UAE.

Harpreet Singh: Khabbu all-rounder Harpreet Singh is from Madhya Pradesh. In 2008–09, he shone in the Cooch Behar Trophy by scoring 709 runs in 7 matches and was awarded the Best Under-19 Cricketer of that season. Was vice-captain in the Under-19 tour of Australia in 2009, scoring 262 runs at 52.40, made his Ranji Trophy debut for Madhya Pradesh and was in the Under-19 squad for the World Cup in New Zealand. Played 9 matches in IPL for 3 teams. Didn’t do anything special in both the matches in Nepal.

It is clear from this introduction that both of them had talent but could not show their junior cricket form in senior cricket. The contract of the 3-3 IPL team is proof that even in IPL, there were opportunities but they were not taken advantage of.

Recently, during the 2026 T20 World Cup, there was a big discussion on the issue that many cricketers of Indian origin are playing for other teams. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself also mentioned the contribution of many players of Indian origin to the development and progress of the country where they live and work. Some matches were even named India’s ‘Aadhar Card XI’ and ‘Green Card XI’ on social media.

The number of Indian players playing for America, Canada, Oman and UAE has increased significantly in the last few years. There is no shortage of people who believe that cricket teams in these countries were formed only because players from Asian cricket countries went there, worked there and played cricket. For countries like America and Canada, there is still hope of getting a passport, but for UAE, they will continue to play with the Indian passport.

Players like Yuvraj Samra, Dilpreet Bajwa, Saurabh, Harmeet Singh, Milind Kumar, Jatinder Singh, Vinayak Shukla, Karan, Jai and Ashish were in the news during this T20 World. India’s Under 19 World Cup winning team captain Unmukt Chand is playing for America. There may be different reasons for each of them to go out of India and play cricket there, but there are some pure examples who, after not being able to do anything special in cricket in India, when the opportunities got reduced, they went outside the borders of the country. Unmukt Chand, Akashdeep and Harpreet Singh come in this list.

In the last few years, those foreign players who played domestic cricket in India, who played T20 International cricket outside India i.e. for any other country:

For Orissa: Anshuman Rath
For Kerala: Arun Pauliz, Mohammed Sanuth
For Saurashtra: Jayesh Odedra, Dinesh Nadkarni
For Punjab: Sunny Sohal, Pargat Singh, Jaskaran Singh
For Madhya Pradesh: Ayaan Khan, Harpreet Singh
For Karnataka: David Mathis
For Andhra Pradesh: Dwarappu Shivakumar
For Delhi: Milind Kumar
For Baroda: Ansh Patel
For Gujarat: Smit Patel
For Himachal Pradesh: Raghav Dhawan, Sumeet Verma
For Uttar Pradesh: Gaurav Tomar, Akashdeep Nath
For Maharashtra: Shubham Ranjane
For Haryana: Hitesh Hooda

All of them played T20 International cricket for teams like Kenya, Hong Kong, Oman, Uganda, USA, Canada, Ghana and UAE. While on one hand T20 cricket created a way for these players to play outside India, on the other hand the number of people going out increased even though there were less opportunities for better cricket for themselves in India.