After being inaugurated last year, the T10 Cricket League has received a great boost before the start of its second edition, as the tournament organisers have got on board some really big cricketing names like Chris Gayle, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Morne Morkel and Rashid Khan and co. for the much-anticipated event.
Drawn in two groups, the eight teams – Kerala Kings, Punjab Legends, Maratha Arabians, Bengal Tigers, Pakhtoons, Rajputs, and the two new entrants Northern Warriors and The Karachians – have picked the best possible squad from a pool of 64 top cricketers in the players' draft before the battle of supremacy begins at the historic Sharjah Cricket Ground from November 23 to December 2, 2018.
The recently took place draft included exceptionally skillful cricketers across the world and the spectacle is only better for it.
Champions Kerala Kings have picked up the likes of Chris Gayle, Junaid Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Tom Curran, Fabian Allen, Niroshan Dickwella, Benny Howell, Imran Nazir, in their squad this year, While Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Luke Ronchi, Mohammad Sami, Zaheer Khan, Umar Akmal, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tom Moores, Anwar Ali, Jade Dernbach and Hassan Khan will feature for last year's runners-up Punjabi Legends.
Having picked Morne Morkel, Aamir Yamin, Mohammed Nabi, Kushal Perera, Sherfane Rutherford, Kevon Cooper, Dan Christian, Ali Khan and Rayad Emrit, Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Asif Ali, the Bengal Tigers will look to give a really tough fight to Maratha Arabians who have Rashid Khan, Alex Hales, Kamran Akmal, James Faulkner, Lasith Malinga, James Vince, Liam Livingstone, Brendan Taylor, Adam Lyth, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Najibullah Zadran and Richard Gleeson part of their squad.
The Pakhtoons picked up Liam Dawson, Mohammed Irfan, David Willy, Colin Munroe, Andre Fletcher, Sohail Khan, Sharfuddin Ashraf, Chadwick Walton, Shahpur Zadran, Cameron Delport and Gulbadin Naib. Whereas the Rajputs chose Mohammed Hafeez, Rilee Rossouw, Mohammed Shahzad, Tymal Mills, Carlos Brathwaite, Rahat Ali, Samit Patel, Qais Ahmad, Ben Dunks, Peter Trego and Shan Masood.
The newcomers, Karachians picked up Jofra Archer, Thisara Perera, Ben Cutting, Muhammad Nawaz, David Malan, Fawad Ahmed, Isuru Udana, Joe Clarke, Samiullah Shenwari and Muhammed Irfan Jr and Northern Warriors got Ravi Bopara, Rovman Powell, Harry Gurney, Chris Green, Obed McCoy, Lendl Simmons, Kharry Pierre and Kennar Lewis from the draft to be added to Dwayne Smith and Nicholas Pooran on board.
The competition was recently given International Cricket Council (ICC) approval too.
(Inputs from PTI)
