MUMBAI: Indian domestic players’ ‘exodus’ to play for the attractive Minor League in the US continues. Apart from former India under-19 captain Unmukt Chand, ex-Delhi batsman Milind Kumar, 30, is the latest to retire from Indian cricket and sign up to play for Philadelphians in the league.
As per the BCCI’s rules, a player has to retire to play in an overseas league. “Yes, I’ve informed the BCCI of my decision to retire from cricket in India. I enjoyed playing for Delhi with great players like Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma, and it’s time to move on,” Milind told TOI.
Milind played for Delhi, Sikkim and Tripura in domestic cricket. He also played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2019 and the Delhi Daredevils (now known as Delhi Capitals) in the 2013 IPL.
He started his career with Delhi and later became the vice-captain of the team. In 2013, he scored an unbeaten 78 off 85 balls, with Shikhar Dhawan scoring a hundred, as Delhi beat England by six wickets in a practice match.
In 2017, he played for Board President’s XI against New Zealand. After he moved to Sikkim, Milind, who led the Northeast team, broke Shreyas Iyer’s record for most runs in an edition of the Ranji Trophy, as he slammed 1331 runs in just eight games at a Bradmanesque average of 121.00 (strike rate of 91.66), in a tally which included six hundreds and four fifties in the Plate League 2018/19 Ranji season.
Overall, Milind played in 46 first-class games (2988 runs@46.68, highest score: 261, nine hundreds and 15 fifties), 65 List A (2023 runs@43.04, 1 hundred & 18 fifties) and 58 T20 matches (1176 runs@29.40, 6 fifties).
