St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots finished with the wooden spoon last year, managing only one win in 10 league games. Consequently, they were one of the most active sides in signing players. Among overseas players, they signed Rilee Rossouw and Sikandar Raza to beef up their batting as well as their all-rounders department.
Patriots had also picked Wanindu Hasaranga and the slingy right-arm pacer Nuwan Thushara, both of whom won’t participate in the tournament due to injuries. Patriots were quick to announce replacements, signing Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi. Nortje is yet to feature in the CPL while Shamsi is a seasoned CPL campaigner, playing 27 games for the Patriots before, picking 33 wickets and playing another five matches for Guyana.
Among the local players, they have brought in Kyle Mayers and Odean Smith to beef up their all-round department further. They also signed Mikyle Louis who made his Test debut in England last month.
Tristan Stubbs didn’t play for them last year, but the Patriots have persisted with him. However, they lost Sheldon Cottrell, one of the renowned players in the competition.
Other stars: Evin Lewis, Joshua Da Silva, Andre Fletcher
Guyana Amazon Warriors
The defending champions don’t have many changes. If anything, they are lighter on paper than last year, losing Chandrapaul Hemraj and Odean Smith. They have brought in Raymon Reifer who played for Barbados Royals last year.
The rest of their squad is similar, especially the overseas players, including Azam Khan, Saim Ayub, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Shamar Joseph graduated to the senior team season from being their net bowler and will be one of their leading pacers this year. Overall, the same set of players will drive the Warriors this season.
Other stars: Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Romario Shepherd, Gudakesh Motie, Imran Tahir, Dwaine Pretorius
St Lucia Kings
St Lucia Kings is the only team (barring the debutant Falcons) not to win the CPL yet. And they have already suffered a big blow before the start of the 2024 season. Heinrich Klaasen, their latest signing and a ferocious power hitter, has opted out of the season due to a family emergency. The Kings will also be without Sikandar Raza, one of the best white-ball all-rounders, from their previous season’s squad. Sean Williams and Colin Munro are the other big players missing.
Tim Seifert (28 CPL matches for TKR between 2020 and 2022) has already been named as Klaasen’s replacement. In the draft and the signing window, the Kings secured Bhanuka Rajapaksa and USA’s Aaron Jones to replace their lost personnel. Courtesy of his Barbados passport, Jones comes in as a local player.
David Wiese returns to Kings (played for them in 2022) and will take Raza’s spot as the overseas all-rounder, although he is a seam-bowling all-rounder whether Raza was a batting all-rounder who bowls off-spin.
Kings have also onboarded an exciting wrist-spin option in Noor Ahmad. The Afghanistan spinner has been one of the top T20 wrist spinners of late and will lead their spin-bowling attack.
Other stars: Faf du Plessis, Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Khary Pierre, Alzarri Joseph
Trinbago Knight Riders
The team with the most Caribbean stars has undergone some changes in their overseas recruits. To begin with, they have replaced Martin Guptill with Jason Roy at the top of the order. Tim David won’t be available for the first four games and USA’s wicketkeeper batter Andries Gous is drafted in as replacement.
Given the plethora of Caribbean all-rounders up their sleeves, the Knight Riders have omitted Tom Curran from their squad without signing a like-for-like replacement. Instead, they have invested Curran’s spot in booming their spin attack, selecting Waqar Salamkheil, a left-arm wrist-spinner from Afghanistan. In 2023, Salamkheil played for the Knight Riders as a replacement player for Noor Ahmad and picked 11 wickets in eight matches at 6.7 runs per over.
Josh Little, the left-arm pacer from Ireland, takes Matheesha Pathirana’s spot, who didn’t play a single game for Knight Riders.
Among local players with experience in international cricket, only Chadwick Walton isn’t a part of the squad this time.
Other stars: Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Akeal Hosein, Mark Deyal
Barbados Royals
The Royals have offloaded a number of all-rounders — Carlos Brathwaite, Kyle Mayers and Roelof van der Merwe — without any replacements in the department. They have used those slots to sign specialist batters and bowlers.
Quinton de Kock and David Miller return after their earlier stint with the Royals in 2022. In the bowling, they have acquired Naveen-ul-Haq and Keshav Maharaj. Rovman Powell will continue to be the backbone of their batting. However, Miller and Maharaj are not available for the Royals’ first two matches. Royals have named Shamarh Brooks and Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage as makeshift replacements.
Maheesh Theekshana couldn’t feature for the Royals last year but has been retained for this edition.
Qais Ahmed and Laurie Evans are the other two overseas players missing in Royals’ roaster from last year.
Other stars: David Miller, Rovman Powell, Alick Athanaze, Jason Holder, Rahkeem Cornwall, Obed McCoy
Antigua and Barbuda Falcons
The Falcons have replaced Jamaica Tallawahs and the franchise quickly signed some of the star Tallawahs’ players. They acquired the likes of Fabian Allen, Imad Wasim, Hayden Walsh and Mohammad Amir.
Azmatullah Omarzai was one of their biggest signings. However, the Afghanistan all-rounder has withdrawn from the competition which clashes with his national duties. The Falcons replaced him with Sam Billings, who will join hands with Fakhar Zaman as Falcons’ star overseas batters. None of them have played in CPL before.
Alex Hales, Ben Cutting and Naveen-ul-Haq are the Tallawahs’ players who have moved elsewhere or are not playing this season.
You can check all squads and fixtures for this CPL 2024 here.
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