Maharaja T20 Trophy: Here's how the squads stack up after player draft

The Karnataka State Cricket Association announced their latest T20 tournament, the KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy, earlier this month, which will be held from August 7 to August 26, and the player draft was held on July 30 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

The competition will replace the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), which ran for eight seasons until 2019 before a match-fixing and betting scandal forced the organisers to put a halt to the tournament. The revamped competition will feature six teams – Shivamogga Strikers, Mysore Warriors, Hubli Tigers, Mangalore United, Gulbarga Mystics, and Kalyani Bangalore Blasters.

Coming to the players’ draft, there were four pools of players to choose from – Category A (India and IPL players), Category B (senior state), Category C (U-25, U-23, and U-19), and Category D (the rest). The likes of Manish Pandey, K. Gowtham, Karun Nair, Devdutt Padikkal, and Abhimanyu Mithun were some of the high-profile players who were slotted by the franchises through the draft.

Player draft singings

Shivamogga Strikers

Head coach: Nikhil Haldipur

Category A: K Gowtham, KC Cariappa

Category B: Rohan Kadam, KV Siddhartha, Darshan MB, Stalin Hoover

Category C: Avinash D, Smaran R, Sharath BR, Ranvir Wadhwa

Category D: Rajendra Danganavar, Uttam Ayappa, Chaitanya S, Shreyas BM, KS Devaiah, Vinay Sagar, Shreyas SP, Punith S

Hubli Tigers

Head coach: Deepak Chowgle 

Category A: Abhimanyu Mithun

Category B: Luvnith Sisodia, V Koushik, Liyan Khan, Naveen MG

Category C: Anand, Shivkumar BU, Tushar Singh, Akshan Rao, Zahoor Farooqi

Category D: Rohan Naveen, Saurabh Shrivastava, Sagar Solanki, Gowtham Sagar, Roshan A, Rahul Singh Rawat, Shishir Bhawne, Sharan Gowda

Mangalore United

Head coach: Stuart Binny

Category A: Abhinav Manohar

Category B: R Samarth, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Amit Verma, M Venkatesh

Category C: Aneeshwar Gautam, Sujay Sathyahari, Rohit Kumar AC, Macneil Noronha, HS Sharath

Category D: Shivkumar K, Nikin Jose, Raghuveer Pavalur, Amogh S, Chinmay NA, Aditya Somanna, Yashwardhan, Dheeraj Gowda

Bengaluru Blasters

Head coach: Naziruddin T

Category A: Mayank Agarwal, J Suchith, Ronit More

Category B: Anirudha Joshi, Pradeep T, Kranthi Kumar

Category C: Chetan LR, Anish KV, Kumar LR, Rakshith S, Rishi Bopanna

Category D: Santok Singh, Suraj Ahuja, Paras Gurbax Arya, Lochan S Gowda, Sean Ishan Joseph, Kuhush Marathe, Tanay Walmik

Mysore Warriors

Head coach: PV Shashikath

Category A: Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal

Category B: Shubhang Hegde, Pavan Deshpande, Vidhyadhar Patil

Category C: Ullal, Prateek Jain, Lochan Appanna, Chiranjeevi, Naga Bharath

Category D: Bharath Doori, Shivraj S, Monish Reddy, Varun Rao, Rahul Prasanna, Nithin Bhille, Aditya Goyal, Abhishek Ahlawat

Gulbarga Mystics 

Head coach: Mansuralikhan

Category A: Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal

Category B: CA Karthik, Manoj Bhandge, Shrijith KL, V Kaverappa

Category C: Krithik Krishna, Abhilash Shetty, Kushal Wadhwani, Pranav Bhatia

Category D: Mohit BA, Rohan Patil, Dhanish Gowda, Mohammed Aqib Javed, Shreesha Achaar, Jeshwant Acharya, Aaron Christi

Here’s how the squads stack up after player draft

The Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters: Naziruddin T (Coach), Pavan K B (Assistant Coach), Ragotham Navli (Selector), Pradeep Kumar N (Video Analyst); They picked the following players: Mayank Agarwal, Suchith J, Anirudha Joshi, Pradeep T, Kranthi Kumar, Chetan LR, Aneesh KV, Kumar LR, Rakshith S, Rishi Bopanna, Santok Singh, Suraj Ahuja (WK), P Gurbax Arya, Lochan Gowda, Ronit More, Shaun Tristan Joseph, Kush Marate, Tanay Walmik.

The Hubli Tigers enlisted the services of Deepak Chowgle (Coach), Raju Bhatkal (Assistant Coach), Anand Katti (Selector), Shashikumar (Video Analyst). The team have picked the following players: Abhimanyu Mithun, Luvnith Sisodia (WK), Koushik V, Liyan Khan, Naveen MG, Anand Doddamani, Shivkumar BU, Tushar Singh, Akshan Rao, Zahoor Farooqi, Rohan Naveen, Saurav Srivastav, Sagar Solanki (WK), Gowtham Sagar, Roshan Ashwathiah, Rahul Singh Rawat, Shishir Bhawane, Sharan Goud.  

Gulbarga Mystics line up with Mansur Ali Khan (Coach), Rajashekar Shanbal (Assistant Coach), Santosh V (Selector), Sachidananda (Video Analyst). The players they’ve picked are: Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kruthik Krishna, Abhilash Shetty, Kushaal M Wadhwani, Pranav Bhatia, Shrijith KL (WK), Ritesh Bhatkal, Mohit BA, Rohan Patil, Dhanush Gowda, Mohammed Aqib Jawad, Shreesha Achar, Jeshwanth Acharya, Aaron Christie.

Mangalore United acquired Stuart Binny (Coach), C Raghavendra (Assistant Coach), MV Prasanth (Selector), P Rajeev (Video Analyst). The players they have picked are: Abhinav Manohar, Samarth R, Vyshak V, Amit Verma, Venkatesh M, Aneeshwar Gautam, Sujay Sateri, Rohith Kumar AC, Macneil Noronha, Sharath HS, Shashi Kumar K, Nikin Jose SJ, Raghuveer Pavalur, Amogh S, Chinmay NA, Aditya Somanna, Yashovardhan Parantap, Dheeraj J Gowda.

Shivamogga Strikers picked Nikhil Haldipur (Coach), Aditya Sagar (Assistant Coach), A R Mahesh (Selector), Sharath (Video Analyst) The Players they have brought in are: K Gowtham, KC Cariappa, Rohan Kadam, Siddharth KV, Darshan MB, Stalin Hoover, Avinash D, Smaran R, Sharath BR (WK), Rajvir Wadhwa, Rajendra Danganavar, Utham Aiyappa, Chaitanya S, Shreyas BM, KS Devaiah, Vinay Sagar, Shreyas SP, Punith S.

Mysore Warriors enlisted the services of PV Shashikanth (Coach), SL Akshay (Assistant Coach), KL Ashwath (Selector), Kiran T (Video Analyst). The players they’ve picked for their side are: Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Shubhang Hegde, Pavan Deshpande, Vidyadhar Patil, Nihal Ullal, Prateek Jain, Lochan Appanna, Chiranjeevi GS, Naga Bharath, Bharath Duri, Shivraj S, Monish Reddy, Varun Rao TN, Rahul Prasanna, Nitin Bhille, Aditya Goyal, Abhishek Ahlawat.