Global T20 League Canada aims for bigger and better things

The second edition of the Global T20 League will get underway on Thursday (July 25, 2019) with the Toronto Nationals taking on the Vancouver Knights in the first match at Brampton.

How many teams participating?

Just like the inaugural edition last year, six teams will feature this year as well. However, Cricket West Indies B Team, who were the runners-up last season, won’t be featuring this time. A new team called New York Legends was supposed to replace them at first but it was later cancelled and the Brampton Wolves were introduced as the sixth franchise in June 2019.

Who are the defending champions?

The Vancouver Knights will start this tournament as the defending champions. They won the title last year having defeated the Cricket West Indies B Team by seven wickets in the final. Canadian player Saad Bin Zafar was adjudged as the Player-of-the-Match for his unbeaten knock of 79 off just 48 deliveries.

How many matches?

A total of 22 matches will be played this season with a total of 18 matches in the league stage, three in the playoffs, and one final.

Duration

The league is slated to run from July 25, 2019 and will come to a conclusion with the final scheduled to be played on August 11, 2019.

Venue

All games during the inaugural edition last year were played at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club in Toronto. However, the venue for this year has been changed to CAA Centre in Brampton after the organizers decided to host the tournament in a more central location.

What’s the format?

The league stage will comprise of two rounds. 15 matches will be played in the first round with each team playing five matches. Round two will comprise of three matches and will be played according to the ranks of the teams after completion of round one, which will be –

1st Placed team vs 6th placed team

 2nd Placed team vs 5th placed team

 3rd Placed team vs 4th placed team

These two rounds will be followed by the playoffs which will comprise of three matches once again. Playoff 1 will be played between first and second placed teams, and the winner of this encounter will go directly into the final. The next match will be a knockout between the third and fourth placed teams. The loser of this match will be knocked out whereas the winner will have to fight it out in the playoff three once again with the loser of playoff one. The winner of this match ultimately goes on to the Grand Finale.

Most runs

Lendl Simmons of Winnipeg Hawks was the highest run-getter last season with 321 runs at an average of 45.85. Rassie van der Dussen of the Vancouver Knights was the next best with 255 runs at an average of 51, and they were followed by Sherfane Rutherford, Ben McDermott and Moises Henriques with 230, 224 and 221 runs respectively.

Most wickets

Sheldon Cottrell of Vancouver Knights was the highest wicket-taker last season with 16 wickets in eight matches at an excellent average of 14.25 and an outstanding strike-rate of 10.3. Fawad Ahmed and Lasith Malinga were the next best with 14 and 13 scalps for the Vancouver Knights and Montreal Tigers respectively.

Squads

Brampton Wolves: Lendl Simmons, Andre Fletcher, Babar Hayat, George Munsey, Nitish Kumar, Abraash Khan, Armaan Kapoor, Daren Sammy, Shakib Al Hasan, Colin Munro, Rohan Mustafa, Shahid Afridi, Timil Patel, Wahab Riaz, Zahoor Khan, Faisal Jamkhandi

Winnipeg Hawks: Chris Lynn, Umar Akmal, Najibullah Zadran, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Sunny Sohal, Varun Sehdev, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, Dwayne Smith, Rayad Emrit, Hamza Tariq, Paul van Meekeren, Sompal Kami, Umair Ghani, Kaleem Sana, Romesh Eranga

Edmonton Royals: Kane Williamson, Faf du Plessis, Akash Gill, Sherfane Rutherford, James Neesham, Richie Berrington, Navneet Dhaliwal, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Anshuman Rath, Davy Jacobs, Safyaan Sharif, Ehsan Nawaz, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Shahid Ahmadzai, Kyle Phillip

Montreal Tigers: George Bailey, Kyle Coetzer, Arslan Khan, Ashtan Deosammy, Isuru Udana, Thisara Perera, Keemo Paul, Mohammad Naveed, Nizakat Khan, Nikhil Dutta, Niroshan Dickwella, Matthew Cross, Sunil Narine, Fawad Ahmed, Steven Taylor, Dillon Heyliger

Vancouver Knights: Chris Gayle, Rassie van der Dussen, Rizwan Cheema, Shoaib Malik, Hayden Walsh, Andre Russell, Daniel Sams, JJ Smit, Chadwick Walton, Tobias Visee, Tim Southee, Michael Rippon, Ali Khan, Saad Bin Zafar, Rayyan Pathan, Harsh Thaker

Toronto Nationals: Yuvraj Singh, Chirag Suri, Ravinderpal Singh, Salman Nazar, Rodrigo Thomas, Kieron Pollard, Calum MacLeod, Chris Green, Jasdeep Singh, Brendon McCullum, Heinrich Klaasen, Ghulam Shabber, Trent Boult, Manpreet Gony, Sandeep Lamichhane, Jeremy Gordon, Mark Montfort

What to expect?

The tagline of the second edition reads ‘Bigger Better Stronger’ and it tells us about what we can expect from this season as a whole. The inaugural edition last year laid the foundation of something big in Canadian Cricket. With a host of new faces and international stars participating in this edition, the Global T20 Canada is expected to touch higher heights.