Mohammad Amir, Tamim Iqbal among the top players picked in T10 League draft

Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir was the first pick as the T10 Cricket League had its opening international player draft on Sunday night. Some of the game’s leading players, including legends, would go head-to-head in UAE for the first tournament in the ten overs format next month.

The left-arm pacer led an all-star cast as he was the first player to be picked at the event by the side led by Virender Sehwag. Maratha Arabians, a side who have former India star Virender Sehwag as their captain and Pakistan great Wasim Akram as a team mentor picked up Amir on board for the tournament.

Maratha Arabians, then went on to pick the likes of Imad Wasim, Alex Hales and legend Kumar Sangakkara as the wicket-keeper for the team. Over the four-day course of the competition, Dougie Brown will knit together the team in a similar role he did with the UAE National side.

“It is a different experience for me, and I have not been in this sort of environment before,” Brown said.

“It has been very interesting sitting down with the guys, working out how we will go about our selections. I am thoroughly looking forward to it.” he added.

According to draft rules, all the six teams should pick two UAE players each.

Here are captains and top picks:

Maratha Arabians: Virender Sehwag (c) Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan

Bengal Lions: Sarfraz Ahmed(c) Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad

Kerala Kings: Eoin Morgan(c) Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider

Pakhtoons: Shahid Afridi(c) Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider

Punjabi Legends: Shoaib Malik(c) Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah

Team Sri Lanka Cricket: Will be made up of Colombo players who won Island’s domestic limited-overs competition.

Here are full squads: