IND vs PAK rivalry to reignite in Canada as Harbhajan Singh, Shahid Afridi set to feature in Global T20 tournament

The player draft for the much-awaited Global T20 Canada 2023 was held in Mumbai on Tuesday in a hybrid form, with representatives from each franchise attending from different parts of the world. The league stage of the third edition of Global T20 is all set to begin on July 20 in Brampton, Canada and the cricket mahakumbh will see 6 franchises play 25 matches over the course of 18 days.

Adding to the excitement ahead of an action-packed season this year, the player draft revealed a star-studded line-up of marquee players with a franchise salary-cap of US$579,500. Bangladesh national team’s Test and T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan will join the squad along with superstar Caribbean all-rounder Andre Russell and Australia’s Chris Lynn.

Montreal Tigers. As per the release, Harbhajan Singh, one of India’s most successful spinners, will headline for Brampton Wolves this season along with New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme. The Toronto Nationals will feature veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who was at the center of Pakistan’s only T20 World title, alongside New Zealand’s most reliable big-hitter Colin Munro, while newcomers the Mississauga Panthers will include the explosive Shoaib Malik and the universally admired West Indies cricket icon Will be Chris Gayle.

As Harbhajan Singh gears up to don Brampton Wolves colors in GT20 Canada Season 3, the excitement levels are rising_ #GT20Canada #GT20Season3 #game on @harbhajan_singh @wolves_brampton pic.twitter.com/kA8C5EWB94— GT20 Canada (@GT20Canada) June 16, 2023

Boom Boom – Shahid Afridi’s return to sixes
The Toronto Nationals hit a six with their marquee pick _#game on #GT20Canada #GT20Season3 #GT20CanadaDraft pic.twitter.com/fnBwC4TgMj— GT20 Canada (@GT20Canada) June 13, 2023

Another new entrant this year – Surrey Jaguars will have Pakistan’s top-order batsman Iftikhar Ahmed along with right-handed opener Alex Hales for Nottinghamshire, while Vancouver Knights have signed Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan and Pretoria’s flamboyant batsman and right-handed batsman. Arm leg-spinner Rassie van der Dussen as their marquee for this edition.

Each team consists of 16 players from full and ICC Associate member nations. These squads include six international players including two marquee stars, four players from Associate Nations and six Canadians. The tournament also revealed the head coaches of each franchise who were part of the player draft on Tuesday.

Previous editions have seen stalwarts of the game as marquee players such as Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Brendon McCullum.

brampton wolvesSquad: Harbhajan Singh, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Mark Sinclair Chapman, Usama Mir, Hussain Talat, Usman Khan, Logan van Beek, Jan Nicolas Frylinck, Max O’Dowd, Jeremy Gordon, Aaron Johnson, Rizwan Cheema, Shahid Ahmadzai, Rishiv Joshi Gurpal Singh Sandhu

Montreal TigersSquad: Andre Russell/Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Sherfane Rutherford, Carlos Brathwaite, Muhammad Abbas Afridi, Zaheer Khan, Muhammad Wasim, Akif Raja, Ayan Khan, Dipendra Airi, Kaleem Sana, Srimantha Wijeratne, Matthew Sprouse, Bupendra Singh, Dilpreet Singh , Anoop Cheema

mississauga panthersSquad: Shoaib Malik, Chris Gayle, Azam Khan, James Neesham, Cameron Scott Delport, Shahnawaz Dahni, Zahoor Khan, Tom Cooper, Cecil Parvez, Jaskarandeep Singh Buttar, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nikhil Dutta, Shreyas Movva, Praveen Kumar, Mihir Patel, Ethan Gibson

Surrey JaguarsSquad: Alex Hales, Iftikhar Ahmed, Jason Behrendorff, Liton Kumar Das, Karim Janat, Mohammad Haris, Sandeep Lamichhane, Ayan Khan, Jatinder Singh, Bernard Scholtz, Pargat Singh, Dilon Heliger, Ammar Khalid, Sunny Matharu, Sheel Patel, Kairav ​​Sharma

toronto nationals: Colin Munro, Shahid Afridi, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Zaman Khan, Saeem Ayub, Abdullah Shafiq, Hamza Tariq, Gerhard Erasmus, Johannes Jonathan Smith, Farhan Malik, Saad Bin Zafar, Nicholas Kirton, Armaan Kapoor, Sarmad Anwar, Romel Shahzad, Uday Bhagwan

vancouver nights: Mohammad Rizwan, Rassie van der Dussen, Naveen-ul-Haq, Reeza Raphael Hendricks, Corbin Bosch, Najibullah Zadran, Junaid Siddiqui, Vriti Aravind, Karthik Meiyappan, Ruben Trumpman, Ravinderpal Singh, Harsh Thacker, Ryan Pathan, Nawab Singh, Muhammad Kamal, Kanwar Tathgur.