Afghanistan is ready with its own T20 Cricket competition. The rising Asian cricketing nation has become the latest to join the growing list of countries to have a T20 competition of their own after the Afghansitan Cricket Board (ACB) announced the Afghanistan Premier League (APL).

T20 stalwarts such as Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Brandon McCullum and Andre Russell are among the high profile players who are set to play in the inaugural edition.  The Afghanistan Premier League will be played from October 5 to 21 in the UAE.

Gayle, Afridi, McCullum and Afghanistan's face of cricket, Rashid Khan, have been named as "Icon players" by the five franchises. The squads for the five franchises were picked through a draft in Dubai. The five franchises are named Paktia, Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar. The squads for the respective franchises were picked on Monday night. Rashid Khan Candid Interview: Watch Afghanistan Spin Bowler Talk About His Journey in Cricket and Family!

According to media reports, each team was supposed to pick 17 to 20 players. The rule of having five overseas players and one Associate player was mandatory for every squad.

Below are the complete squad list:

Kabul squad: Rashid Khan (icon), Luke Ronchi, Hazrat Zazai, Colin Ingram, Farid Malik, Javed Ahmadi, Sohail Tanvir, Laurie Evans, Wayne Parnell, Shahidullah, Muslim Musa, Afsar Khan Zazi, Muhammad Ashan Ali Khan, Zahir Shirzad, Fitrat Khawry, Usman Adil, Shawkat Zaman, Nasir Totakhil, Zamir Khan.

Paktia squad: Shahid Afridi* (icon), Thisara Perera, Mohammad Shahzad, Cameron Delport, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Samiullah Shinwari, Chris Jordan, Faheem Ashraf, Luke Wright, Amatullah Omerzai, Rahmanullah Garbaz, Zia Urhaman Akber, Calum Macleod, Tahir Adil, Yousaf Zazi, Fazal Zazai.

Kandahar squad: Brendon McCullum (icon), Wahab Riaz, Asghar Afghan, Paul Stirling, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Tymal Mills, Sam Billings, Iftkhar Ahmed, Hamza Hotak, Karim Sadeq, Sayed Shirzad, Mohammad Naveed, Waqar, Abdul Baqi, Waheed Shafaq, Waqarullah Ishaq, Nazir Jamal.

Nangarhar squad: Andre Russell (icon), Tamim Iqbal, Mujeeb Zadran, Ben Cutting, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Najibullah Taraki, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Hafeez, Rahmat Shah, Naveen Ul Haq, Zahir Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Fazal Haq, Imran Janat, Nasratullah Quarishi, Khyber Omar, Ibrahim Zadran, Faal Nazai.

Balkh squad: Chris Gayle (icon), Colin Munro, Mohammad Nabi, Ravi Bopara, Aftab Alam, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Irfan, Ben Laughlin, Karman Akmal, Qais Ahmed, Usman Ghani, Ikrain Alikhil, Ryan ten Doeschate, Tariq Skanikai, Asadullah Matani, Samiullah Salarzai, Farhan Zakhil, Mohammad Nawaz, Darwish Rasooli.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 11, 2018 05:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).