While the IPL is about to stop in the next 4 days in the country, the 20th season of T-20 Blast, the oldest league of T20 cricket, is starting in England today. A total of 126 matches will be going to play in this league of 18 teams. The first match is between Yorkshire and Worcestershire from 11 pm Indian time. The final match will take place on 16 July.
Organized by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the T20 Blast League is the oldest professional T20 league in the world. Its first season was played in 2003. From here T20 cricket spread all over the world and became the most popular format of the game. Leicestershire is the most successful team in this tournament, having won the title 3 times so far.
Teams
18 teams from different regions (counties) of England will take part in the T20 Blast. These teams are divided into two groups according to the North and South areas. Each team will get to play 14 group matches, consisting of 7 home games and 7 away games. After the league phase, the top four teams from both groups will qualify for the quarter-finals.
North Group-: Birmingham, Derbyshire, Durham, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Worcestershire, Yorkshire
South Group-: Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Glamorgan, Middlesex, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex
Players to Watch out
T20 Blast is a league of England, but every year along with young and experienced players of England, famous players from all over the world take part. Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine for Surrey, Harris Rauf, Shadab Khan and Dimuth Karunaratne for Yorkshire, Colin Munro and Dwayne Bravo for Worcestershire, Carlos Brathwaite and Paul Stirling for Birmingham, Mohammad Rizwan, Rashid Khan for Sussex And players like Tim Seifert.
Some other players to watch out for are Dan Christian, Jimmy Neesham, Chris Lynn, Shaheen Afridi, Tim David, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Marnus Labuschagne, and Daniel Sams will also play for different teams.
Where to watch in India?
T20 Blast will not telecast live on any TV channel in India. The live telecast of the match will be available on the YouTube channels of various county teams.
