Lanka Premier League 2021: Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi and Irfan Pathan register for draft

The 2021 edition of the Lankan Premier League (LPL) is set to take place later this year and fans must gear up to witness some exciting battle between the bat and the ball. As many as 600 players, including 300 overseas stars, will feature in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2021 player draft. Hence, it would be interesting to see how the team squads will look.

For the unversed, LPL 2021 will be the second edition of the Sri Lanka-based T20 tournament. While the tournament is scheduled to get underway on December 5, the final clash will take place on December 23. Like the inaugural edition, a total of five teams will be in action with a prestigious title at stake. Alongside numerous local stars, T20 stalwarts from worldwide will also ply their trade.

As per a release, West Indies legend Chris Gayle, former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi and former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan are some of the many prominent names to have signed up for the draft of the second season of LPL. Former South African captain Faf du Plessis will also feature in the draft and multiple teams would want to bag his services.

Prominent stars to feature in LPL 2021

While Chris Gayle, who’s currently featuring in the T20 World Cup 2021, has been active in T20 leagues worldwide. The southpaw is also the highest run-getter in the history of T20 cricket. As far as Afridi and Pathan are concerned, they aren’t active international cricketers anymore and it would be interesting to see how the draft would pan out for them.

Notably, the draft for this year’s tournament was initially scheduled to take place on November 5. However, it was shifted to November 9 later. Speaking of the five teams taking part in the competition, they are Colombo, Dambulla, Galle, Jaffna, and Kandy. A team can have a total of 20 players – 14 local and 6 overseas players in the squad.

Besides these foreign stalwarts, eyes will be on several local talents. Young talents like Charith Asalanka, Mahesh Theekshana, and Pathum Nissanka have done well in national colours lately and would be the cornerstones of their respective teams in this year’s LPL.

Check the latest updates of the Lanka Premier League schedule, Lanka Premier League Teams and Squads,  Lanka Premier League Points Table, and more on CricTracker.