Blasters to face Phantoms in Sher-e-Punjab T20 opener today
Mohali, June 9
Led by swashbuckling batter Naman Dhir, defending champions BLV Blasters will open their second Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cricket Cup campaign against Royal Phantoms at the IS Bindra Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium tomorrow.
Twentyfour-year-old Dhir, who recently left a mark in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while playing for Mumbai Indians (MI), had scored 20 off 10 balls against Gujarat Titans and 62 off 28 balls against Lucknow Super Giants. “It’s exciting to be back home. I am looking ahead to playing a challenging cricket. We won the tournament last season and are looking forward to give our best. Defending the title is not easy, but our team is ready for the challenge,” said Dhir.
The Blasters have IPL-fame left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar, who is also the 2023 (U-19) World Cup runners-up team member, and fast bowler Aaradhya Shukla along with opener Harnoor Pannu. The latter, a member of the 2022 (U-19) World Cup winning team, has moved back from UT Cricket Association Chandigarh to the PCA for better opportunities. He has scored double hundreds and centuries in the U-23 Punjab inter-districts T20 and one-day tournament.
Meanwhile, Anmolpreet Singh, who scored a match-winning ton against Baroda to set up Punjab’s title win in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy last season, will be at Phantom’s helm. His experience along with the exuberance of youngsters will add zing to their challenge. Ajay Joshi is the coach of the team. Later in the day, JK Super Strikers will clash against Intersoft Titans.
Prabhsimran replaces Nehal
Another IPL fame star Prabhsimran Singh has replaced Nehal Wadhera as captain of the Trident Stallions squad. Wadhera has been called for the India A team camp. Team owner Rajinder Gupta said Prabhsimran would be accompanied by IPL stars like Ramandeep, Baltej and Gurnoor in this event.
Prabhsimran played IPL-2024 for Punjab Kings and scored 334 runs in 14 matches. He had a batting strike rate of 156.81 and scored two half-centuries in big matches. The top four teams of the league stage will qualify for the semifinals, which will be held on June 25. The final is scheduled to be played on June 27.
Squads:
Intersoft Titans: Vishwanath Singh (captain), Jashanpreet Singh, Sarthak Sharma, Pukhraj Mann, Gitansh Khera, Abhinav Sharma, Harry Dhaliwal, Lovedeep Singh, Krish Bhagat, Siddharth Kaul, Tejpreet Singh, Emanjot Singh, Prabhkirat Singh, Harjas Singh Tandon, Paras Jaidka, Mridul Sandal, Anil Yadav, Karan Choudhary, Yashpaawanjot Singh, Lovekirat Singh, Gaurav Bedi, Yuvraj Singh, Manpreet Singh, Randeep Gill and Navneet Singh. Coach- Sunil Saggi
Royal Phantoms: Anmolpreet Singh (captain), Eish Rao, Vaibhav Kalra, Jaskaranvir Singh, Ridham Satyawan, Azam Nazar, Anshul Negi, Parmish Kumar, Vikrant Rana, Garv Kumar, Sukhdeep Bajwa, Kartik Chaddha, Prakash Singh, Sohraab Dhaliwal, Kunwar Kukreja, Sahil Chander, Karanveer Singh, Tarun Sareen, Aseem Kohli, Kovid Gujjar, Krish Nanda, Anshul Chaudhary, Harel Vashisht, Parvjot Singh and Deepam Sharma. Coach- Ajay Joshi
Trident Stallions: Prabh Simran Singh (captain), Ravinder Singh Brar, Ramandeep Singh,Vihaan Malhotra, Abhay Chaudhary, Salil Arora, Aditya Pratap Singh, Sahil Sharma, Nirmal Singh, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Baltej Singh Dhanda, Ashish Lawrance, Jass Inder Singh, Aryaman Singh, Shubham Rana, Anmoljeet Singh, Inderpreet Singh, Pukhrajdeep Singh, Sameer Khan, Kunwarbir Singh, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Dhruv Mittal, Rachit Soni, Udaibeer Bhuttar and Gurwinder Singh. Coach- Uday Kaul
JK Super Strikers: Sanvir Singh (captain), Satyam Sharma, Jovanpreet Singh, Karteek Sharma, Shahbaz Sandhu, Gourav Markan, Aryan Yadav, Shivein Rakheja, Aarush Sabharwal, Raman deep, Sahil Khan, Vashish Mehra, Manish Sheoran, Prerit Dutta, Arjun Pappal, Harshdeep, Deepin Chitkara, Jeevanjot Bajwa, Rajveer Soni, Chintan Randhan, Vaibhav Sahdev, Yuvraj Mann, Raghuvar Narang and Rahul Singh. Coach- Uday Kaul
