A total of 117 cricketers are participating for six teams in the inaugural season of International League T20 being played in the UAE. An opulent T20 league, it is currently into its third day which comprises of a couple of matches.
Advertisement
Coming on the back of a loss in the tournament opener, Abu Dhabi Knight Riders are playing their second match. Unlike Friday, Knight Riders are batting first at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in an afternoon contest. The only change made by them for this match is including pacer Matiullah Khan in place of all-rounder Fahad Nawaz.
Playing their first-ever match, Gulf Giants have taken the field under the captaincy of England batter James Vince. Other than the skipper, some of Gulf’s other international cricketers are Ollie Pope, Shimron Hetmyer, Liam Dawson, David Wiese, Rehan Ahmed, Chris Jordan and Richard Gleeson.
Indian players in ILT20 2023
As far as Indian cricketers are concerned, only former batters Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan are taking part in ILT20 2023. Both part of Dubai Capitals, they were even part of their starting Playing XI in the first match against Abu Dhabi.
Having played 59 and 79 white-ball matches for India respectively, Uthappa and Pathan had last played international cricket in 2015 and 2012. The pair had to hang their boots from international cricket in order to be eligible for partaking in overseas T20 leagues due to BCCI’s strict restrictions around not allowing their players to play T20 leagues outside of their control.
Uthappa, 37, had publicly expressed a desire of playing overseas T20 competitions even urging former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to let non-contracted players play at least two leagues per year.
While fans might also come across many other names of the Indian origin, it is worth mentioning that neither of them play domestic tournaments in India. In fact, a lot of them are local cricketers who have represented UAE at the highest level.
