By Tim Cutler
Game Three (Fantasy in Bold – M Osama selected to fit team in – Dream 11 hasn’t updated Devcich or Pascoe’s inclusion)
| Kowloon Cantons | Galaxy Gladiators Lantau |
| Dwayne Smith (WI) | Kumar Sangakkara (c) (SL), |
| Babar Hayat (c) | Cameron Delport (RSA), |
| Samit Patel (Eng) | Anton Devcich (NZ) |
| Ashar Zaidi (Eng) | Shahid Wasif, |
| Adeel Shafique | James Franklin (NZ) |
| Ryan Buckley | Jade Dernbach (ENG) |
| Simandeep Singh | Moner Dar |
| Wahab Riaz (Pak) | Muhammad Balal |
| Paul van Meekeren (Ned) | Imran Arif |
| Ehsan Nawaz | Daniel Pascoe |
| Bobby Chan (Dragon) | Li Kai-ming (Dragon) |
Defending champs Kowloon Cantons start their campaign for a three-peat against the Galaxy Gladiators of Lantau Island.
In short, despite the return of legend Kumar Sangakkara to GGL’s ranks, the upheaval of two overseas withdrawals, including the injury to huge recruit Jofra Archer, and the loss of Mohammad Awais (replaced by Dan Pascoe) I cannot see them troubling the points table scorers in their first match.
The Cantons have invited overseas stars Dwayne Smith & Ashar Zaidi back – both key players in the Cantons’ victorious 2017. Complementing them are Samit Patel – a player who in my opinion should be with the England squad in AU/NZ (and should’ve been for the Ashes too), Pakistani speedster Wahab Riaz, and Dutch/Somerset paceman Paul van Meekeren.
With no less than seven bowling options and a team of batters, Kowloon will be the team to beat this year (again). I also predict this match will see them play their Dragons player Bobby Chan who has to play one match as mandated by the tournament conditions.
