Meet the Former Indian Pro Dominating Washington Cricket League and Trying to Make the U.S. National Team

Sunny Sohal did everything he could to earn a spot on India's national cricket team. For almost a decade, the native of Punjab scored runs, picked up wickets, avoided injuries, and played his heart out for state and league clubs at the highest levels of the sport, once notching 47 runs off 20 odd balls in an Indian Premier League match against the Mumbai Indians in 2013.

Still, it wasn't enough. So in 2014 Sohal went with Plan B: if he couldn't make India's national team, he would try to do so in the United States.

Today, the 28-year-old cricketer lives in Maryland, where he also plays for Potomac's team in the Washington Cricket League, a recreational cricket league in the Washington D.C. area. To say that he's dominating would be an understatement.

Last summer, Sohal led his team, which had finished the previous season in last place, to the championship of the WCL, finishing the season with 800 runs and 25 wickets—the equivalent of a baseball player batting .400 while hitting 40 home runs.

Talent-wise, Sohal is now a big fish in a smaller pond, akin to an average National Basketball Association player suiting up in the Philippines Basketball Association. And that's part of his plan.

"America has a lot of potential, and with better organization, cricket here can be so much more than what it is," Sohal said. "If I can't play cricket for India, I want to play cricket for the U.S."

As a teenager, Sohal competed for India's under-19 team, and later for Punjab's IPL squad against cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Chris Gayle. But by the time he turned 26, in 2014, he still hadn't broken through.

A few grey hairs had appeared on Sohal's head. Players who were ten years old when he started were now competing against him. He felt his athletic clock ticking, and the odds were not on his side.

In the United States, only about one percent of collegiate basketball players go pro each year; this year just 46 of 18,697 NCAA basketball players were drafted into the NBA. Sohal's chances of making India's national cricket team were even smaller. In a country of 1.25 billion people, the squad fields about 30 players at any given time.

Going overseas to continue playing a sport is hardly unheard of. There are thousands of American basketball players scattered across the globe—including 84 in the PBA—who are very, very good but not quite good enough to play in the NBA.

Still, Sohal's story is a bit unusual. He's not playing in the WCL to make a living but rather to compete at the international level. In America, that means playing for the U.S. national cricket team.

Though cricket is not a major sport in the United States, the national team gets opportunities to play bilateral series against countries like Ireland, Netherlands, and UAE. It also participates in the ICC Twenty20 Americas Championships every year alongside countries like West Indies, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

The Team USA Selection Committee generally picks players who have performed well at the club level, naming them to the national squad before the start of international series play. So to make the cut, Sohal needs to stand out in Potomac.

That hasn't been a problem. His explosive batting and spin-bowling techniques have put him in a league of his own. With three months left in the current WCL season, he already has 300 runs and 15 wickets, putting him on pace to score over 900 runs and 30 wickets.

Numbers like that have made Sohal a measuring stick for everyone else in the league. If a bowler can stop Sohal from scoring runs, that means he is bowling in the right spots. If a batsman can score runs off of his spin, he's headed in the right direction.

While Sohal sometimes seems to be toying with his WCL competition, Potomac captain Munish Pathak says that he comes on time for every practice and never misses matches.

"He shows us really how to build your innings, right? How to build your presence in the field, how to stay alert, because you might only get two or three chances throughout the game," Pathak said. "That's what he brings, his experience and his demeanor is so friendly that people around him just get better."

Sohal is a gregarious teammate: offering his lunch to anybody who walks by, dancing to the tune of a Punjabi song during fielding breaks, and having one-on-one conversations with his teammates to help them improve. He's here on a P1 visa, which is available for athletes to perform in tournaments and competitions in the United States.

Sohal is not permitted to work under this visa, which he says helps him focus on getting better at cricket. He calls his move to the America "Part II" of his athletic career, and his wife and son are here with him. Someday, he says, he wants to help popularize the sport by teaching it to middle-schoolers—but for now he simply wants to make the national team.

"It is like I was reborn," Sohal said. "And this time, I will make it count."

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