Gulf Giants, which is a team owned by Adani group in the UAE T20 league, have named their star studded overseas line-up for the first season of the tournament which will take place in January-February next year. Out of all the teams which have named their overseas signings, the Giants seem to have got the most number of star players.
Shimron Hetmyer is the biggest name the Giants have been able to have on board, but apart from him, the likes of Chris Lynn and James Vince, who have been signed by the Giants, are also among some of the prominent names in T20 cricket around the world, although the two of them are not regular features in the IPL at the moment.
Chris Lynn who's been signed by Adani Group owned team, Gulf Giants in UAE T20 League is yet to receive NOC from Cricket Australia. (Reported by Cricbuzz).
Advertisement— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 18, 2022
Most of the other franchises in UAE T20 league haven’t been able to sign a lot of England players, but the Giants squad feature as many as eight players from England. Vince and Chris Jordan are some of the familiar names in the T20 circuit, but Richard Gleeson is someone who is also a very useful fast bowler in the shortest format of the game and he has recently made his T20I debut for England at 34 years of age.
The Giants have also secured the services of the young English leg spinner Rehan Ahmed who grabbed a lot of eyeballs in the U19 World Cup held earlier this year in West Indies and is already on the radar of England selectors as a possible replacement for Adil Rashid in white ball cricket in future.
The South Africa born T20 freelancer David Wiese is a part of the Gulf Giants squad as well. Wiese, who made his debut in international cricket for South Africa many years back, now plays for the Namibia national team.
Here are the 14 international players in the Gulf Giants squad for the inaugural season of UAE T20 league –
Chris Jordan, Ollie Pope, Tom Banton, Jamie Overton, Richard Gleeson, Liam Dawson, James Vince, Rehan Ahmed (all England), Shimron Hetmyer, Dominic Drakes (all West Indies), Qais Ahmed (Afghanistan), Chris Lynn (Australia), David Wiese (Namibia), Wayne Madsen (Italy)
Gulf Giants picking the 38 year-old Wayne Madsen as an "Associate Player" on the back of his Italian passport, despite the fact he has never played a single game for Italy, and in fact turned down the opportunity to do so makes an absolute mockery of the AM player slot.#ILT20 https://t.co/pAmdehXWqD
— Bertus de Jong (@BdJcricket) August 17, 2022