The eighth edition of Karnataka's T20-based franchise league, the Karnataka Premier League 2019 is all set to commence from the August 16th, 2019 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
This season will follow a similar template to the previous edition, with the seven teams in the fray namely Ballari Tuskers, Bijapur Bulls, Bengaluru Blasters, Belagavi Panthers, Hubli Tigers, Mysuru Warriors, and Shivamogga Lions set to battle it out for the title.
The KPL, since its inception in 2009 has unearthed some of the best cricketing talents from the state and will yet again witness some exciting, budding cricketers put their best foot forward to earn a spot in the senior state team and the IPL 2020.
Thus far, the league has witnessed six different teams lifting the title, across the seven editions of the competition. The now-defunct Provident United and Mangalore United were the inaugural season and second season champions respectively, while the Mysuru Warriors finished as the champions from the 2014/15 season.
The Bijapur Bulls claimed their first win from the 2015/16 season while the Ballari Tuskers won their first title at the end of the 2016/17 edition. The 2017/18 edition, which was the 6th edition of KPL saw the Belagavi Panthers lift their first-ever title.
In the previous edition of KPL, under the leadership of ace opening batsman Bharath Chipli, the Bijapur Bulls finished as champions, becoming the first-ever team to lift the trophy twice in the history of the competition.
How did the auctions pan out ahead of the upcoming season?
The KPL 2019 player auctions saw the seven teams bid aggressively to procure the services of over 200 players who went under the hammer, with several high-profile players released into the pool.
For the first time in seven seasons, the teams were handed an opportunity to re-sign the services of one of their players from last season through the 'Right to Match' card which added an extra dimension to the intense bidding.
Seasoned all-rounder Pavan Deshpande (Shivamogga Lions) earned the highest pay as he pocketed a contract of ₹7.3 lakh while the Mysuru Warriors signed Aniruddha Joshi for ₹7.1 lakh.
The Bengaluru Blasters broke the bank to procure the services of Rongsen Jonathan for ₹6 lakh apart from the Hubli Tigers signed talented opening batsman Mohammed Taha for a sum of ₹5.7 lakh.
Abhimanyu Mithun, who was KPL 6's costliest player became the first player to re-sign with his team from the previous edition as the Shivamogga Lions exercised their RTM card to bring back his services.
However, there were some surprises as besides K Gowtham and Manish Pandey penning down contracts worth just ₹1.9 lakh and ₹2 lakh respectively, the duo of Karun Nair and Shreyas Gopal shockingly went unsold.
Yet, this could have been a result of the Duleep Trophy contest scheduled to take place from August 17th, which will see the participation of the aforementioned quartet while KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal will be off for national duty.
Where and when will KPL 7 take place?
The upcoming season will be contested in two cities, Bengaluru and Mysuru, with the city of Hubli missing out owing to inclement weather conditions.
Bengaluru will host the opening leg of the tournament from August 16th-23rd, with August 24th the rest/travel day with the final leg slated to take place in Mysuru from August 25th.
This edition will also witness an exciting addition to the schedule, as the IPL-style knockout format will be implemented, to meet the demands of the franchises.
The two table-topping teams will meet in the first qualifier, as the winner of that contest will book a spot in the final. The third and fourth-placed team will meet in the first eliminator and the winner of that contest will face the loser of the first qualifier in the second qualifier.
The team which wins the second qualifier will then go on to face the winner of the first qualifier for the title, thus handing the top two teams on the table and extra chance at booking a spot in the summit clash.
Full Schedule
Except for the opening day and the knockout games, all the other days will feature two games, the first game beginning at 3 PM, followed by the second game at 7 PM.
16th August, 7 PM - Bengaluru Blasters v Mysuru Warriors
17th August, 3 PM - Hubli Tigers v Shivamogga Lions
17th August, 7 PM - Ballari Tuskers v Belagavi Panthers
18th August, 3 PM - Mysuru Warriors v Shivamogga Lions
18th August, 7 PM - Bengaluru Blasters v Bijapur Bulls
19th August, 3 PM - Hubli Tigers v Ballari Tuskers
19th August, 7 PM - Mysuru Warriors v Belagavi Panthers
20th August, 3 PM - Ballari Tuskers v Bijapur Bulls
20th August, 7 PM - Bengaluru Blasters v Shivamogga Lions
21st August, 3 PM - Bijapur Bulls v Mysuru Warriors
21st August, 7 PM - Hubli Tigers v Belagavi Panthers
22nd August, 3 PM - Ballari Tuskers v Bengaluru Blasters
22nd August, 7 PM - Hubli Tigers v Bijapur Bulls
23rd August, 3 PM - Belagavi Panthers v Bengaluru Blasters
23rd August, 7 PM - Shivamogga Lions v Ballari Tuskers
24th August - Rest Day/Travel Day, action shifts to Mysuru
25th August, 3 PM - Belagavi Panthers v Shivamogga Lions
25th August, 7 PM - Mysuru Warriors v Hubli Tigers
26th August, 3 PM - Belagavi Panthers v Bijapur Bulls
26th August, 7 PM - Mysuru Warriors v Ballari Tuskers
27th August, 3 PM - Hubli Tigers v Bengaluru Blasters
27th August, 7 PM - Shivamogga Lions v Bijapur Bulls
28th August, 7 PM - Table topper 1 v Table topper 2 (Qualifier 1)
29th August, 7 PM - 3rd placed team v 4th placed team (Eliminator)
30th August, 7 PM - Qualifier 1 loser v Eliminator winner (Qualifier 2)
31st August, 7 PM - Qualifier 1 winner v Qualifier 2 (Final)
What if it rain affects play?
In case of rain or any other unforeseen weather conditions, points will be split in the group stage matches and if it rains during the knockout stages, the team placed higher on the points table will progress further.
If the final is hampered by rain, the two teams featuring the final will be declared as joint-winners.
Full squads
Ballari Tuskers: CM Gautam (C), Devdutt P, CA Karthik, Abhishek Reddy, Krishnappa Gowtham, Prasidh Krishna, Pradeep T, Abrar Kazi, KP Appanna, Mohammad N Nizar, Bhavesh Gulecha, Zeeshan A Sayyad, Ruchir Joshi, Santok Singh, Vishnu Priyan, Gaurav Dhiman, Sharath Srinivas, Suraj Reddy, Sharana Basawa.
Bengaluru Blasters: Rongsen Jonathon (C), V Koushik, Manoj Bhandage, Rohan Kadam, Sharath BR, Bharath Duri, Anand Doddamani, Naga Bharath, Bharath D, Anil IG, Nikin Jose, Anuraj Bajpai, Nishant S Shekhawat, Muthanna Chandrasekhar, Kishore Kamath, Kuldeep Kumar, Rishi Bopanna, Aditya Goyal.
Belagavi Panthers: Mir Kaunian Abbas (C), Shubhang Hegde, Avinash D, Manish Pandey, D Negi, Abhinav Manohar, Arshdeep Singh Brar, Ritesh Bhatkal, Stalin Hoover, Darshan MB, Ravikumar Samarth, Zahoor Farooqui, Kiran AM, Rakshith S, Lochan Appanna, Darshan Machaiah, Abdul Majid.
Bijapur Bulls: Bharath Chipli (C), KC Cariappa, Suneel Raju, Prateek Jain, Bhareth NP, Naveen MG, SL Akshay, Rajoo Bhatkal, Pranav Bhatia, Shimon Luiz, BA Mohit, Chiranjeevi GS, Swapnil Yelave, Samarth Ooty, Liyan Khan, R Praveen Kumar, Suraj Kamath, Jaswath Acharya.
Hubli Tigers: R Vinay Kumar (C), Praveen Dubey, Mohammed Taha, Pawan KB, Aditya Somanna, Shishir Bhavane, Vidyadhar Patil, Mahesh Patel, Abhilash Shetty, David Mathias, Shivil Kaushik, Suraj Seshadri, Mithrakanth Yadav, Vishwanath M, KL Srijith, Luvnith Sisodia, Parikshith Shetty, Dheeraj Shashidhar.
Mysuru Warriors: Amit Verma (C), Aniruddha Joshi, J Suchith, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Shoaib Manager, M Venkatesh, Devaiah KS, KV Siddharth, Kushal Wadhwani, Vinay N Sagar, Saurabh Yadav, Manjesh Reddy, Sankalp Shettinavar, BU Shivkumar, Ram Sarikh Yadav, Jayesh Babu, Kishan Bedare, Dega Nischal.
Shivamogga Lions: Abhimanyu Mithun (C), Pavan Deshpande, Nihal Ullal, Prithviraj Shekhawat, Nidhish M, HS Sharath, Arjun Hoysala, Manjunath SP, Akshay Ballal, Sujith N Gowda, Rishabh Singh, Rohit Gowda, Rohit K, Prashant S, Hoysala K, Pradeep Gangadhar, Shivaraj S.
Where and when to watch, telecast details
Dates: August 16th - August 31st
Time: 3 PM and 7 PM
Telecast: Star Sports Network
Live streaming: Hotstar
Updates: Sportskeeda
Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on KPL points table, news, results, KPL schedule 2019, most runs, most wickets and fantasy tips.
Looking for fast live cricket scores? Download CricRocket and get fast score updates, top-notch commentary in-depth match stats & much more! 🚀☄️