ILT20 2025: Are MI Emirates favourites again? Who are the players to watch out for?

The tournament begins on January 11 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The tournament will run till February 9 with a total of 34 games - 30 league games, two qualifiers, one eliminator and a final. This is the same as the last two seasons. Sharjah and Abu Dhabi are the other two venues.

Six teams will participate - Dubai Capitals, MI Emirates, Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, Desert Vipers, Gulf Giants and Sharjah Warriors.

Each of the six teams will play each other twice in the league stage. The teams that finish in the top two of the table will play the Qualifier 1, with the winner advancing to the final. The teams finishing third and fourth will participate in an Eliminator, a knockout fixture. The winner of the Eliminator will then play the losing team of Qualifier 1 to decide the second finalist.

Dubai will host Qualifier 1 and the final, Abu Dhabi the eliminator while Qualifier 2 will take place in Sharjah.

It is difficult to look past the defending champions. With Nicholas Pooran as captain and the likes of Kieron Pollard, Romario Shepherd, Alzarri Joseph and Fazalhaq Farooqi in the mix, they have a strong squad. Emirates will be challenged by Vipers, who have Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan, Sherfane Rutherford and Mohammad Amir.

Yes, a few. Vipers, who were captained by Colin Munro last season, will be led by New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson this time. For Sharjah Warriors, Tim Southee takes over the reins from Tom Kohler-Cadmore. The rest of the captains remain the same. Sunil Narine will captain Knight Riders, and David Warner will lead Capitals. Pooran will head Emirates, and James Vince will captain Giants.

It was a season dominated by Emirates from start to finish. They topped the points table with six wins and four losses in ten games along with Giants who also had 12 points. But Giants went down in the knockouts, first against Emirates in Qualifier 1 and against Capitals in Qualifier 2.

In the final, Emirates racked up 208 for 3 after a solid top-order performance. In reply, Capitals could only muster 163 for 7.

Well, there is Pooran, who had a blockbuster 2024 finishing with 2331 runs in 74 T20 innings, the most for any batter that year. He hit 170 sixes, comfortably the highest, with Heinrich Klaasen second on the list with 105.

Then there is Rutherford and Rovman Powell, but don't count out Warner, who might have a point to prove after going unsold in the IPL 2025 auctions. Kohler-Cadmore had a terrific Abu Dhabi T10 last month, where he scored 278 runs in nine matches at a strike rate of 198.5. He will look to continue his good form. Afghanistan offspinner AM Ghazanfar could also prove to be a handful on the UAE decks.

While the likes of Muhammad Waseem and Aayan Afzal Khan are expected to feature regularly for their respective sides, also watch out for youngsters Alishan Sharafu and Ali Naseer. Sharafu was the fourth-highest run-getter in T20Is last year and second most for UAE - Waseem accumulated 909 runs and finished at the top - with 770 runs in 24 matches at a strike rate of 140.76. Naseer, the fast-bowling all-rounder, finished last year as UAE's second-highest wicket-taker in T20Is.

Dipendra Singh Airee became the first Nepal player to feature in the ILT20 last year, and this season, Kushal Malla has joined him. The Italian fast bowler Thomas Draca is also on the MI Emirates roster. He is the first Italian player to get picked in the league.

A host of USA players such as Andries Gous, Harmeet Singh, Ali Khan and Nosthush Kenjige are also around. Each side needs to have at least two UAE players in the XI and two Associate overseas players in the squad.

It is. The tournament will clash with South Africa's SA20, which starts on January 9 and will run until February 8. In addition, the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Australia's BBL and New Zealand's Super Smash will also run around the same time.