The fourth edition of Uttar Pradesh T20 League has started. This tournament with 6 teams will run for 23 days. Amidst the presence of big players like Rinku Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, young players are also ready to leave their mark. Good performance in this league can take them to the Indian Premier League (IPL) league. Before the IPL auction, scouts of all the franchises remain very active during the domestic cricket leagues. They identify the talent and inform the management of the franchise, after which the franchise buys that player in the auction.
In the last IPL auction, Punjab Kings (PBKS) had bid Rs 30 lakh on Vishal Nishad, who came from the UP T20 League. Mystery spinner Vishal had impressed the scouts while playing for Gorakhpur Lions in the UP T20 League. After this, PBKS included this unknown player in their team. Even though Vishal Nishad did not get to play any match for PBSK, his reaching IPL shows how big a platform the UP T20 League has now become.
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Crores were showered on this player
The UP T20 League was started in 2023. In its very first season, this league gave a superstar like Sameer Rizvi. Sameer Rizvi had scored 455 runs in just 9 innings that season, which included 2 century innings. Just a few months later, he was showered with money in the IPL 2024 auction. A big team like Chennai Super Kings had bought this young batsman for Rs 8.40 crore. Like Rizvi, Swastik Chikara also joined Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after making a name for themselves in the UP T20 League.
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The luck of these players also shone
Fast bowler Abhinandan Singh managed to reach RCB due to his excellent performance in the 2024 edition. While playing for Lucknow Falcons, he took 15 wickets in 10 innings. Vipraj Nigam also took 20 wickets in 11 innings for Lucknow Falcons that year, after which he got a place in the Delhi Capitals team. Apart from these young players, the career of Zeeshan Ansari also gave a new turn to the UP T20 League.
Leg spinner Zeeshan, who had played the Under-19 World Cup with Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan, was lost in anonymity. He made Meerut Mavericks the champion by taking 24 wickets in the UP T20 League 2024 and caught the attention of scouts. After this he was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad. In IPL 2026, SRH played Zeeshan in 10 matches, in which he took 6 wickets.