T20 Mumbai 2019: Teams announce retained players for Season 2

The T20 Mumbai league is gearing up for its second season in 2019, and the first step towards the formation of the 6 teams took place on  27th April as the six franchises from the first season gave the list of their players retained, which included some big names on the national circuit as well as some of the top stars of last season. The Mumbai league turned out to be quite successful in its 2018 avatar and takes another step in pitting Mumbai’s best talent against each other.

The six teams in the competition are the ARCS Andheri, NaMo Bandra Blasters, North Mumbai Panthers, Shivaji Park Lions, SoBo Supersonics and Triumph Knights Mumbai North East. Last year’s final saw the Triumph Knights edging out the Shivaji Park Lions in the final by just 3 runs. The SoBo Supersonics and the Bandra Blasters were the other two teams who qualified for the playoffs after a single round-robin group stage.

Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer among players who have been retained

The auction for the second season will be underway on 4th May, but before that, all the six teams had the option of retaining a maximum of 2 players from the squad they had last season. Five teams went for the option of retaining two players, with North Mumbai Panthers retaining only one player in Prithvi Shaw. The ex-U19 India captain has had a huge year and earned his maiden Test cap, and the Panthers have shown faith in him as their only retained player.

Defending champions Triumph Knights retained captain Suryakumar Yadav, and explosive batsman Akash Parkar, both of whom were vital in their title bid last year, with Yadav scoring a match-winning knock of 90 in the final against the Shivaji Park Lions. The Lions meanwhile, retained the services of their standout performer, all-rounder Shivam Dube, as well as veteran Mumbai cricketer Siddhesh Lad. Both Dube and Lad are currently playing in the IPL for RCB and Mumbai respectively.

Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer was also retained by his T20 Mumbai franchise NaMo Bandra Blasters, alongside wicketkeeper-batsman Eknath Kerkar. Meanwhile, group stage leaders SoBo Supersonics chose to retain opener Jay Bista and young leggie Dhrumil Matkar, while the Arcs Andheri team retained all-rounder Shubham Ranjane and pacer Tushar Deshpande. With a heady mix of well-known stalwarts and up-and-coming youngsters, season two is gearing up to be another mouthwatering cash of Mumbai’s best.