Expert Dhangadhi Blues, one of the six franchises of the Pokhara Premier League (PPL), on Tuesday unveiled their team including the two foreign recruits for this season’s Twenty20 tournament.

English county cricketers Daniel Lawrence and Peter Trego are the international recruits for Blues, who have national team middle order batsman Dipendra Singh Airee as marquee player with the captain of the franchise yet to be named. The 21-year Lawrence plays for Essex in the English county and is regarded as the most promising youngster tapping the door for the senior England national cricket team.

Lawrence is the third youngest batsman to slam a century in the County Championship after he scored 151 against Surrey at The Oval when he was 17 years in 2015. Trego is one of the most experienced batsmen in English county cricket having played 217 First Class games, 187 List ‘A’ matches and 197 Twenty20s. The 37-year old Trego plays for Somerset. While Trego has highest score of 94 not out in the Twenty20s, Lawrence’s best score in the shortest version of the game is 86. Blues coach Manoj Katwal believed the two recruits were good pick for the team.

“We have a very young squad and we were looking for some experience hands in the middle order. The presence of two county cricketers will definitely bolster our squad,” said Katwal. Veteran Manjeet Shrestha is the oldest member in the Blues squad which has Subhendu Pandey and Arun Singh Airee as local iconic player. National team opener Dilip Nath and hard-hitting batsman Saurabh Khanal are other two big names in the Blues team that also includes Bikram Thagunna, Firdosh Ansari, Sagar Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee, Robeen Chhetri, Sandeep Sunar, Sundeep Zora, Sandeep Rajali, Santosh Bhatta and Yogendra Singh Karki.

The Blues franchise is owned by Expert Education and Visa Services and has former U-19 team wicket-keeper Subash Pradhan as team director. Pradhan said they had reasons to pick up a haul of youngsters for the tournament. “We were long mulling to groom this set of players so that when they come back after four years, they will mature as cricketers,” said Pradhan.

PPL begins from October 26 in Pokhara where Blues have to see of the challenges from Chitwan Rhinos, Pokhara Paltan, Biratnagar Titans, Kathmandu Royals and Butwal Blasters. Katwal said Paltan and Rhinos are the pre-tournament favourites. “They (Rhinos and Paltan) look good on papers but we want to have a go at the title as well,” said the coach who manages Nepal Police Club in domestic cricket.