Cricket fans are eagerly anticipating the highly competitive second season of the Uttar Pradesh T20 League, set to begin on August 25. The tournament promises exhilarating matches, all scheduled to take place at the renowned Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Teams and format
Six teams will vie for the championship in this electrifying T20 event: Kanpur Superstars, Kashi Rudras, Gorakhpur Lions, Lucknow Falcons, Noida Super Kings, and Meerut Mavericks. The league phase will follow a double round-robin format, with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar becomes the highest paid player
The mega auction for the second season of the UP T20 League was held on July 28, where numerous cricketers were up for grabs. A total of 171 players from UP were shortlisted for the auction, and out of them, 91 were successfully acquired by the franchises through open bidding. Collectively, the six teams will spend approximately INR 750 lakh on these players.
Veteran bowler and swing maestro Bhuvneshwar Kumar emerged as the highest-priced player. A fierce bidding war ensued between Kashi Rudra, Meerut Mavericks, and Noida Kings, but it was the Lucknow Falcons who secured Bhuvneshwar with the highest bid of INR 30.25 lakhs, surpassing his base price of seven lakhs.
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Top bids
Right-arm fast-medium pacer Shivam Mavi, with a base price of INR 7 lakh, became the second-highest-paid player after being picked up by Kashi Rudras for INR 20.50 lakh. Young wicketkeeper-batter Uvais Ahmed, who impressed for Meerut Mavericks in the inaugural season, was surprisingly re-acquired by Meerut Mavericks for INR 20 lakh, far exceeding his base price of INR 2.50 lakh.
Players sold for more than INR 10 lakh:
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar: INR 30.25 Lakh: Lucknow Falcons
- Shivam Mavi: INR 20.50 Lakh: Kashi Rudra
- Uwais Khan: INR 20.00 Lakh: Meerut Mavericks
- Mohsin Khan: INR 19.25 Lakh: Kanpur Super Stars
- Shakib Siddiqui: INR 18.50 Lakh: Kanpur Super Stars
- Shaurya Singh: INR 16.75 Lakh: Kanpur Super Stars
- Siddharth Yadav: INR 15.50 Lakh: Gorakhpur Lions
- Rituraj Sharma: INR 15.25 Lakh: Meerut Mavericks
- Bobby Yadav: INR 15.25 Lakh: Noida Kings
- Kritagya Singh: INR 13.75 Lakh: Lucknow Falcons
- Shivam Bansal: INR 11.50 Lakh: Kashi Rudra
- Jasmer Dhankad: INR 11 Lakh: Kashi Rudra
- Prince Yadav: INR 10.50 Lakh: Kashi Rudra
Complete list of players sold and their teams:
Lucknow Falcons
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar (30.25 lakhs)
- Kritagya Kumar Singh (13.25 lakhs)
- Sameer Choudhary
- Samarth Singh (both 5.40 lakhs)
- Vipraj Nigam
- Kishan Kumar
- Ankur Chauhan (all 3.50 lakhs)
- Prashant Choudhary (3.40 lakhs)
- Kamil Khan (2.60 lakhs)
- Parth Palawat
- Kirti Vardhan
- Shubhangi Raj
- Akshu Bajwa
- Parv Singh (all 2.40 lakhs)
Gorakhpur Lions
- Siddharth Yadav (15.50 lakh)
- Yash Dayal (7.00 lakh)
- Saurabh Kumar
- Ankit Chaudhary
- Yash Pradhan (both 6.60 lakh)
- Vaibhav Chaudhary (6.40 lakh)
- Akshdeep Nath (5.20 lakh)
- Ankit Rajput
- Aryan Jurel (both Rs 5.00 lakh)
- Abdul Rehman (4.00 lakh)
- Hardeep Singh (3.70 lakh)
- Rohit Dwivedi (3.50 lakh)
- Ansh Dwivedi (3.00 lakh)
- Vineet Dubey
- Kritagya Singh (both Rs 2.50 lakh)
Kashi Rudra
- Shivam Mavi (20.50 lakhs)
- Shivam Bansal (11.50 lakhs)
- Jasmer Dhankad (11.00 lakhs)
- Prince Yadav (10.50 lakhs)
- Yashovardhan Singh (5.80 lakhs)
- Almas Shauk (5.60 lakhs)
- Arn Baliyan (3.50 lakhs)
- Vansh (3.10 lakhs)
- Sunil Kumar (2.70 lakhs)
- Harsh Payal
- Ajay Singh
- Ghanshyam
- Manish Singh
- Karan Choudhary
- Chavez (all 2.50 lakhs)
Kanpur Super Stars
- Mohsin (19.25 lakh)
- Shoaib Siddiqui (18.50 lakh)
- Shaurya Singh (16.75 lakh)
- Adarsh Singh (6.20 lakh)
- Aaqib Khan (5.00 lakh)
- Shubham Mishra (4.50 lakh)
- Nadeem (4.10 lakh)
- Aashiyan Ali
- Rishabh Rajput (both 3.70 lakh)
- Ankur Malik (3.30 lakh)
- Inzamam Hussain
- Osho Mohan
- Kuldeep Kumar
- Mukesh
- Asif Ali
- Sudhanshu (all 2.50 lakh)
Meerut Mavericks
- Uvesh Ahmed (20.00 lakh)
- Rituraj (15.25 lakh)
- Divyansh (7.80 lakh)
- Vijay Kumar
- Yash Garg (7.00 lakh)
- Jamshed Alam (3.80 lakh)
- Yogendra Dollaya (3.10 lakh)
- Deepanshu (2.60 lakh)
- Akshay Sain
- Shubhankar Shukla
- Rajat Sanserwal
- Yuvraj Yadav
- Divyansh Rajput
- Zeeshan Ansari
- Shiven Malhotra (all Rs 2.50 lakh)
Noida Kings
- Bobby Yadav (15.25 lakhs)
- Mohd. Sharim (7.80 lakhs)
- Kavya Tewatia
- Piyush Chawla (7.00 lakhs)
- Mohd. Aman (6.60 lakhs)
- Naman Tiwari (6.20 lakhs)
- Shanshu Saini (5.60 lakhs)
- Kunal Tyagi (5.20 lakhs)
- Kartikey Yadav
- Ajay Kumar
- Vishal Pandey (5.20 lakhs)
- Rahul Rajpal (5.00 lakhs)
- Manav Sindhu (3.5 lakhs)
- Rahul Raj
- Shivam Saraswat (2.50 lakhs)
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