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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