From the World Cup to the Sparkle Army: Sanjay Krishnamurthi on his breakout year for the US and the Unicorns’ 2026 title push

It’s been a whirlwind year for San Francisco Unicorns’ Sanjay Krishnamurthi following the team’s run to the playoffs at the 2025 Cognizant Major League Cricket. Coming off a relentless schedule that included stints at the Janakpur Bolts in the Nepal Premier League, the MI Emirates in the IL20, and various USA commitments that saw him become a key player for his country in the recent T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. 

Sanjay now has a small moment to breathe from cricket, albeit with studying commitments at San Jose State ongoing, before he gears up again for the Unicorns for what is set to be another high-stakes summer.

Reflecting on the recent World Cup – where the USA won two of their four group games against Namibia and Netherlands, having been dealt a tough opening pair of matches, where the USA ran India close and succumbed to a strong Pakistan performance – Sanjay views the team’s performance with a mix of pride and pragmatism. 

Based on the squad’s expectations, he notes that they would have liked to secure one more win, though taking a powerhouse like India close was a massive positive. “We have to be satisfied,” he concedes.

A personal highlight of the tournament was his commanding 68* unbeaten against Namibia. “Coming off a couple of low scores, things finally clicked,” Sanjay notes openly. He attributes the success to his power-hitting mechanics falling into place, though he also humbly admits that T20 cricket always carries an element of luck, with “dropped catches and edges flying over fielders” being commonplace.

The match against India offered an entirely different test for Sanjay and many of his teammates: the atmosphere. While he’d experienced sell-out crowds in the IL20 final and at key MLC matches, the sheer volume of the partisan Indian supporters was on another level. Rather than shrinking from it, Sanjay says he enjoys the “wall of noise” that helps him lock into tunnel vision while batting, while noting confidently that it’s great to know you can silence such a powerful home weapon with a strong performance.

Despite these experiences, he acknowledges the lingering gulf between associate and full member cricket nations. The difference, he explains, “comes down to experience of the key moments.” Top-tier teams play each other constantly, whereas associate players lack this depth of end-game know-how, with Krishnamurthi proposing his theory of “a fear of winning” mentality when some teams find themselves on the brink of an upset.

A new Unicorns’ era

Looking ahead to the 2026 MLC season, there is fresh energy around the Unicorn’s camp. Sanjay is highly optimistic about working with new head coach, Cameron White, praising “his impressive cricketing knowledge.” 

He’s equally supportive of the team’s unique, AI-led approach to the game. The Unicorns operate with a start-up mentality, utilizing various bleeding-edge technologies to assist with preparation, selection, and match planning. 

For Sanjay, this is not an overwhelming mandate, but rather another valuable tool that players can pick up whenever it suits them. Despite studying a computer science degree, he is pragmatic about the balance of data-led approaches and trusting his feel for the game, finding that he enjoys uncovering trends about how bowlers try to attack him, while knowing that a clear mind and a trust in training drills and technique is often the best way to go into certain match situations.

The goal now is to bring the Championship to the Oakland Coliseum. The fans have had a year to see what Bay Area cricket is all about on home turf, and Sanjay can’t wait to get back in front of them, noting that he’s also had dreams about major scores in key MLC games that may soon self-prophecise.

The evolution of the game

To get to peak performance, Sanjay knows his game must be adaptable. When asked if he prefers to see himself as an innings builder or more of a finisher, he says T20 cricket demands versatility and requires batters to handle any match situation. “I’d say it’s cricket-specific drills in the gym combined with a lot of that power-hitting time in the nets,” Sanjay explains of his training approach. “More than even the nets, it’s in drills where I just repeat swings over and over. It’s almost just one swing, but depending on the length, you change the plane. 

“T20 cricket is about hitting sixes. If you can hit a boundary off almost any ball, then you can pick and choose the ones you want to hit.”

With tournament scores frequently pushing the 240-run mark, as we saw with India’s run to the recent World Cup, he acknowledges the reality for modern bowlers.

“The wickets are getting flatter, and the bats are better. Maybe scores are higher in general?” Will the game ever tilt back in the bowlers’ favor? “I don’t really see the crowd wanting that. Maybe after five years of dominant high scores, people will start getting sick of just six-hitting.”

Sanjay doesn’t see the need for any dramatic change, adding that a bit of grass added to most pitches may help. Still, even when you have a flat pitch, “if there is a bowler with extreme skill – Bumrah comes to mind – they’re still able to do something special, and so there’s a place for highly-skilled bowlers, for sure.”

The road ahead

For the Unicorns, the key to building a successful culture lies in squad retention. Sanjay deeply values the franchise’s commitment to keeping a core group of domestic and international players together.

“I love consistency in the role, when the players know what’s expected of them,” he says. “You can trust others to do their job, and you do your own. I really enjoyed developing with this group in the past couple of years, and we’re getting closer together. Even the overseas players who we may not see for much of the year; when they come back, it’s a similar group, and that familiarity is important.”

As the new season looms, his personal ambitions are clear: add more consistency and deliver some more match-winning performances. But above all, his focus is on the team.

“My main focus is just doing whatever I can to help us win the Championship game this year. We came closer a couple of years ago, and then last year we had a great run in the group stage. Everything we’ve been doing is tracking in the right direction.”

His final message is reserved for the fans who will be backing them at the Coliseum: “Sparkle Army, come out like you did last year, but even better, and we’ll do our best to try to bring the Championship home this year.”