England’s Eoin Morgan is the top short-format player among a host of stars lined up for the United Arab Emirates T10 later this year.
The league will feature an impressive array of some of the best hitters in world white-ball cricket who are sure to light up the second edition of the UAE T10 League.
The T10 League will take place around December and takes the form of a 10-over per team slog-fest, with matches scheduled to last 90 minutes. Teams will compete over 10 days in 28 matches in a league that offers terrific excitement and, following a successful first staging in 2017, is set to thrill spectators around the world once again.
A mini player draft was held in Dubai on 24 July in which the six teams from 2017 enjoyed first option to retain four players. The two new teams for 2018 – the Northern Warriors and the Karachians – had the chance to pick five players, which included an icon player each. The Karachians landed Aussie Shane Watson as their icon player. Watson was the star of the 2018 IPL final, and has a career strike rate of 145.32 in T20Is. The Warriors secured West Indian powerhouse Darren Sammy, who holds the record for the highest career strike rate of 164.12 in World T20 matches.
England’s white-ball captain Morgan is one of nine English players who have already signed up, while three Afghanistan players have been given the nod by franchise owners. Ireland’s big-hitting Paul Stirling has been called up by the defending champs, the Kerala Kings.
Rilee Rossouw (Rajputs) and Colin Ingram (Pakhtoons) are the two South African players who have been snapped up by franchises. Rossouw’s career T20I strike rate is 137.97, while Ingram’s sits at 129.62.
A second draft in September will allow franchises to fill the rest of the squads.
UAE T10 draft picks
| Team | Other players |
| Bengal Tigers | Icon player: Sunil Narine Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Asif Ali, Mujeeb Ur Rahman |
| Karachians | Icon player: Shane Watson Jofra Archer, Anton Devcich, Colin de Grandhomme, Ben Laughlin |
| Kerala Kings | Icon player: Eoin Morgan Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir, Paul Stirling, Dasun Shanaka |
| Maratha Arabians | Icon player: Rashid Khan James Faulkner, Alex Hales, Dwayne Bravo, Kamran Akmal |
| Northern Warriors | Icon player: Darren Sammy Andre Russell, Dwayne Smith, Wahab Riaz, Nicholas Pooran |
| Pakhtoons | Icon player: Shahid Afridi Colin Ingram, David Willey, Mohammad Irfan, Liam Dawson |
| Punjabi Legends | Icon player: Shoaib Malik Evin Lewis, Chris Jordan, Luke Ronchi, Liam Plunkett |
| Rajputs | Icon player: Brendon McCullum Mohammad Hafeez, Rilee Rossouw, Chris Lynn, Mohammad Shahzad |
Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
