Abhimanyu Rajp

Abhimanyu Rajp (born 8 March 1986) is an Indian born American cricketer. Rajp is a right-arm off-spin bowler and a right handed batsman. Rajp currently represents the United States national cricket team.

Rajp was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Along with being primarily a right-handed off-spinner he is also a handy batsman. He started playing cricket professionally at an early age and represented his city Ludhiana at the U-14 and U-16 district levels. Later, Rajp, who was 14 at the time, along with his family moved to the United States of America in the year 2000. Rajp, quickly took over the Under-19 cricket scene in the USA and became one of the All-stars of the country by 2004. Soon after, he was labelled as one to watch for the future by various critics in the USA cricket circuit.

Rajp captained the Southern California Cricket Association's Under-19 team from its creation in 2002 till 2006. He was also the captain of USA's South West Region Under-19 team from 2004 to 2006, which participates in the annual USA National Under-19 Tournaments. He was part of the first generation of USA cricketers in the Under-19 structure of USA that started with the first Under-19 National Tournament in 2004. Rajp went on to make the national under-19 team in 2005.

Rajp first represented the United States national cricket team at the ICC Americas Under-19 Championship in 2005 against Canada, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Argentina. Rajp was particularly successful against Bermuda, taking 5 for 7, due to which Bermuda was all out for a rather small target of 87 and USA coasted to victory by eight wickets. The very next day, Rajp took another five-for (5 for 45), against Argentina in a seven-wicket victory before USA registered its final victory of the tour against Cayman Islands to seal a sweep of the tournament and made history by clinching a spot in the 2006 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup for the first time, in Sri Lanka. At that tournament, Rajp became the first American cricketer to become the MVP of any U-19 tournament involving USA. He grabbed the best bowler of the tournament and two man of the match awards. Rajp ended the tournament with a tournament-high 11 wickets in four games and marked his arrival.