Major League Cricket 2024: Washington Freedom to start against MI New York. All you need to know about Season 2

Our Major League Cricket 2024 campaign starts with a mouth-watering clash against defending champions MI New York at Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina, on July 6.

Steve Smith joins our side with a host of exciting players this season and will lead us in the second edition of MLC. Along with Smith, the Australian duo of Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell are also on board and will strengthen our batting.

Travis Head had an excellent outing in the T20 World Cup 2024, finishing as the highest run-getter for Australia and the third-highest overall. The Southpaw amassed 255 runs from seven matches at an excellent average of 42.50 and a strike rate of 158.38.

New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra and pacer Lockie Ferguson also join the team, alongside home favorites Andries Gous and Saurabh Netravalkar who held fort from last year.

Gous and Netravalkar finished as the highest run-getter and wicket-taker respectively for the USA in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, powering the co-host to the Super 8 stage in their first-ever World Cup.

Ricky Ponting will be our Head Coach for the MLC 2024 season as he takes over the reins from last year’s coach Greg Shipperd. Ponting will be assisted by former Australian batter Cameron White.

What went down for Washington Freedom in MLC 2023?

We finished third in the MLC 2023 standings with six points from three wins and two losses in our group games. In the resulting Eliminator contest against MI New York, we fell short by 16 runs.

Matthew Short was our top run-getter in the 2023 campaign with 152 runs from six outings. Saurabh Netravalkar topped our bowling charts, ranking fifth overall with 10 wickets from six matches, including breathtaking figures of 6/9 against the San Francisco Unicorns.

MLC 2024 Schedule: Washington Freedom matches

Unlike the five league matches, one against each team, which all teams had in MLC 2023, the current edition will see teams play a total of seven league matches. We will face MI New York and Texas Super Kings twice each and play once against the remaining three teams. Here's a look at our schedule for MLC 2024.

Washington Freedom Matches at MLC 2024

Match	Venue	Date and Time (ET/CT)	Date and Time (IST)
Washington Freedom vs MI New York	Morrisville	July 6, 3.00 PM	July 7, 12.30 AM
Washington Freedom vs Texas Super Kings	Morrisville	July 8, 3.30 PM	July 9, 1.00 AM
Seattle Orcas vs Washington Freedom	Dallas	July 11, 8.30 PM	July 12, 6.00 AM
Washington Freedom vs Los Angeles Knight Riders	Morrisville	July 14, 3.30 PM	July 15, 1.00 AM
MI New York vs Washington Freedom	Dallas	July 16, 8.30 PM	July 17, 6.00 AM
Texas Super Kings vs Washington Freedom	Dallas	July 19, 8.30 PM	July 20, 6.00 AM
San Francisco Unicorns vs Washington Freedom	Dallas	July 22, 8.30 PM	July 23, 6.00 AM

MLC 2024: Washington Freedom squad

Our team has progressed well from last year and grown into a stronger unit in the second season. The batting group has a wealth of experience, especially with the Australian trio of Head, Maxwell, and Smith.

Mukhtar Ahmed is a dangerous batter at the top of the order, averaging 28.77 in T20s with a healthy strike rate of 146.18.

Lahiru Milantha is the second wicketkeeper in the squad, along with Andries Gous. The left-handed Milantha is also a useful batter, averaging just under 25 with a strike rate of 136.58.

Glenn Maxwell, Rachin Ravindra, Marco Jansen, and Ian Holland are the all-rounders who provide the much-needed balance to the side. Holland averages 27.55 with the bat in T20s, and his handy medium pace provides a breakthrough every 22.6 balls.

Netravalkar and Ferguson spearhead a pace attack that includes the experienced Andrew Tye. Tye has a tally of 332 wickets from 239 matches at an average of 21.15 and an unbelievable strike rate of 15.4.

Akeal Hosein will headline the spin department. He will be the fourth left-arm spinner in the side, along with Ravindra, Obus Pienaar, and Amila Aponso.

Washington Freedom Squad: Steven Smith (c), Akhilesh Reddy Bodugum, Jack Edwards, Andries Gous, Travis Head, Lahiru Milantha, Mukhtar Ahmed, Justin Dill, Ian Holland, Marco Jansen, Glenn Maxwell, Obus Pienaar, Rachin Ravindra, Amila Aponso, Lockie Ferguson, Akeal Hosein, Saurabh Netravalkar, Andrew Tye, Yasir Mohammad

Where to watch WF vs MINY MLC 2024 LIVE

The LIVE telecast and streaming of the Washington Freedom vs MI New York match will be available on Monumental Sports Network in Washington D.C. and Willow by Cricbuzz in the USA. The match will start at 3:00 PM ET on July 6.

The WF vs MINY match will stream LIVE on the Jio Cinema App and website in India, starting at 12:30 AM IST on July 7.