Global T20 Canada 2018 Schedule, Squads of all teams

Sandwiched between the sheer royalty of the Indian Premier League's extravaganza and the frolic of the intensely contested Caribbean Premier League, is cricket's newest addition to the range of franchise leagues around the world, the Global T20 Canada.

The primary reason for the introduction of this competition is to inculcate a young generation of players and officials to build up the integral longevity that is much required for the sustenance and prospering of cricket in the country.

Cricket is coming back to Canada and it is coming back in style!

Don't let the relatively lower profile of the host country mislead you, several T20 superstars and legends of the sport are assembling in the Great White North to give the country its due deserve of well-competed high profile cricket. Over the course of two weeks and four days, running from June 28 to July 16, 22 matches will be played among six sides at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club in Toronto. The newly renovated ground now has an increased seating capacity of 7,000.

The league comprises five Canadian teams and a West Indian representative team, made up entirely of players from the Caribbean islands. The six teams in the proposed tournament are the Cricket West Indies B Team, Toronto Nationals, Montreal Tigers, Edmonton Royals, Vancouver Knights, and Winnipeg Hawks.

The league will be broadcast on Sky Sports in the UK and Star Sports in India, for the more trending means of internet streaming these days, Indian viewers can watch it on Hotstar and rest of the globe can turn their eyeballs to the online stream by Pakistani website Cricingif.

Global T20 Canada 2018 Squads

Smith and Warner will want to make the headlines for all the right reasons

The five Canadian and one Caribbean based teams picked players on a draft basis, initially twelve marquee players including the likes of Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga and more famously the duo of Steven Smith and David Warner, who will be making their comebacks to competitive cricket after their suspension due to the ball-tampering saga in March, were announced as to be among the participants.

A total of 1600 players inducted themselves into the roster to be picked, out of which 600 were Canadian. The final squads stand as follows:

Cricket West Indies B Team

Anthony Bramble, Fabian Allen, Alick Athanaze, Roland Cato, Justin Greaves, Derval Green, Kavem Hodge, Brandon King, Jeremiah Louis, Obed McCoy, Khary Pierre, Nicholas Pooran, Sherfane Rutherford, Shamar Springer

Coach: Stuart Williams, Roddy Estwick

Toronto Nationals

Darren Sammy, Steven Smith, Kieron Pollard, Kamran Akmal, Hussain Talat, Rumman Raees, Nikhil Dutta, Johnson Charles, Kesrick Williams, Naveed Ahmad, Farhan Malik, Usama Mir, Rohan Mustafa, Nitish Kumar

Coach: Phil Simmons

Montreal Tigers

Lasith Malinga, Sunil Narine, Thisara Perera, Mohammad Hafeez, Denesh Ramdin, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sikandar Raza, Dasun Shanaka, Isuru Udana, George Worker, Najibullah Zadran, Cecil Pervez, Ibrahim Khaleel, Dillon Heyliger, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyan Pathan

Coach: Tom Moody

Edmonton Royals

Shahid Afridi, Chris Lynn, Luke Ronchi, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Christiaan Jonker, Wayne Parnell, Asif Ali, Hasan Khan, Agha Salman, Shaiman Anwar, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Ahmed Raza, Abraash Khan

Coach: Mohammad Akram

Vancouver Knights

Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Tim Southee, Chadwick Walton, Fawad Ahmed, Babar Hayat, Sheldon Cottrell, Saad Bin Zafar, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Srimantha Wijeratne, Kamau Leverock, Steven Jacobs, Salman Nazar, Rassie van der Dussen, Jeremy Gordon

Coach: Donovan Miller

Winnipeg Hawks

Dwayne Bravo, David Miller, David Warner, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Rayad Emrit, Ben McDermott, Ali Khan, Hamza Tariq, Junaid Siddique, Tion Webster, Rizwan Cheema, Hiral Patel, Mark Deyal

Coach: Waqar Younis

Squad Analysis

Smith will be looking to make his mark in the Global T20 Canada

Toronto Nationals

In headlines for bagging the services of Steven Smith, Toronto packs a star-filled line-up and are heavy on all-rounders primarily. Most likely to be led by one of the most successful T20 leaders, well not too flashy credentials other than a stadium being named after him, Darren Sammy is a well-proven captain. They also boast a good host of Pakistani talent, with all of the recruits having done extremely well in the recent edition of the Pakistan Super League.

UAE all-rounder Rohan Mustafa will be their trump card, the dark knight in the team of glittering superheroes. He caught the attention of the franchise owners with his consistent all-round performances in the ICC World Twenty20 Asia Region Qualifier, playing for the UAE.

Montreal Tigers

With arguably the greatest T20 bowlers in their ranks, the Montreal based side are going into the tournament with a clear strategy. Borrowing a trick or two from the likes of Perth Scorchers and Sunrisers Hyderabad, all their international recruits are either bowlers or all-rounders, hence they'll be looking to play a more restricting brand of cricket.

Well, with Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine teamed up, you won't be needing your batsmen to fire in each game and hence Montreal has made the bold and appreciable decision of backing the local talent as far as the batting stocks are concerned, Mohammad Hafeez will be a vital element in that aspect though.

Edmonton Royals

This franchise replaced the initially declared Ottawa based side, and one look at their squad would tell you that they have made firepower a priority in picking their players. Shahid Afridi, who recently ~~probably~~ played his last ever international match, will be the face of the side that boasts a mix of young as well as experienced brands of aggression.

This is highlighted by the presence of the likes of Chris Lynn and Christiaan Jonker, both of them will be looking to perform well in this league to boost their credentials and earn the currently vacant middle-order berths in their respective countries' national sides.

Vancouver Knights

They have also taken the Edmonton route with a host of aggressive players who have the mettle to single-handedly win games for their sides. Andre Russell, perhaps the best all-rounder in T20 cricket at the moment will be an exciting prospect. Post his return from a one-year suspension he has looked more dangerous than ever and when clubbed together with Chris Gayle, it could only equate to destructive performances.

In the bowling department, however, they have the element of skill and guile, spearheaded by New Zealand's seasoned fast bowler Tim Southee who can swing it at 145 clicks and can also bowl slow dipping yorkers when required. He will be instrumental to the team's success.

Winnipeg Hawks

Probably the most balanced side in the contest, the Hawks have managed to create a very good combination, putting in together ballistic openers, brisk accumulators for the middle-order travails, swift bowlers for the new rock and the cunning of Dwayne Bravo to come on stage when the going gets tough, either in the batting or in the bowling.

All eyes will be on David Warner, whose international career is at crossroads after an extremely emotionally violent and turbulent tour of South Africa, he has often spoken in cryptic tones about wanting to be a freelancing cricketer, this might be the beginning of Davey the Journeyman.

Cricket West Indies B Team

To begin with they were named the Caribbean All Stars XI, but now it seems like WICB has resorted to using the GT20 Canada as the platform to give the up and coming raw talents a stage to perform on, with not much other than prodigious wicket-keeper Nicholas Pooran to write home about, the side is mostly filled with recent U19 representatives or fringe understudies from state cricket.

Nevertheless, the energetic youth in the side could churn some magic against all odds and with a few good days, who knows, they just might go all the way. The one thing they will have going in their favour is the cohesion due to the already established proximity between the players, hailing from the same broad region and many of them have been teammates in the past.