Afghans from around the country are counting down the start of the 12th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as their favorites Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujib Zadran are part of the tournament. 

The first match of the league will kick off today at 7pm Kabul time between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The googly master Rashid Khan signed Sunrisers Hyderabad for 90 million Indian rupees and allrounder Mohammad Nabi for 10 million Indian rupees. 
Meanwhile, another googly expert Mujib Zadran has joined Kings XI Punjab for a 40-million Indian rupees contract.

“I am eagerly waiting to see the Afghan cricketers shining in the international league,” said Ahmad, a Kabul resident. 

“Rashid played well in the last year’s season and I hope he will give more pride to Afghans this time as well,” said Samir Ahmad, a Kabul resident.    

In this season of the Indian Premier League Cricket, famous cricketers from around the world have been bought by eight teams and are set to compete for nearly two months.

Chennai Super Kings won the last year’s championship. 

Below is the list of teams and their players in the 12th season of the IPL: 

Chennai Super Kings (CSK):

MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Billings, Mitchell Santner, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Imran Tahir, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Dhruv Shorey, N Jagadeesan, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Mohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Delhi Capitals (DC):

Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Manjot Kalra, Colin Munro, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult, Hanuma Vihari, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Ankush Bains, Nathu Singh, Colin Ingram, Sherfane Rutherford, Keemo Paul, Jalaj Saxena, Bandaru Ayyappa, Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem.

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP):

Ravichandran Ashwin (c), KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sam Curran, Mohammed Shami, Prabhsimran ran Singh, Nicolas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):

Dinesh Karthik (c), Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, KC Cariappa, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Carlos Brathwaite, Lockie Ferguson, Joe Denly, Harry Gurney, Nikhil Naik, Shrikant Mundhe, Prithvi Raj Yarra.

Mumbai Indians (MI):

Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Evin Lewis, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff, Quinton de Kock, Jayant Yadav, Barinder Singh Sran, Lasith Malinga, Yuvraj Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Pankaj Jaswal, Rasikh Dar.

Rajasthan Royals (RR):

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, S. Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi,  Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror  Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas, Ashton Turner, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Riyan Parag, Manan Vohra, Shubham Ranjane.

Royal Challengers Banglore (RCB):

Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj,  Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shivam Dube, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Himmat Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann,  Heinrich Klaasen, Devdutt Padikkal, Milind Kumar.

Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH):

Kane Williamson (c), Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, , Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill.