St. Kitts and Nevis, Aug 25 (IANS): Defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) will lock horns with Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) in the opening encounter of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), starting on Thursday at the Warner Park here.

Trinbago Knight Riders, the most successful team in the CPL, will seek to add more glory to their name and another trophy to their cabinet.

The CPL this year will be played in St Kitts & Nevis with most of the players and the franchise officials having reached the venue ahead of the start of the season. The season will be played from August 26 to September 15. TKR are four-time champions while Barbados Royals and Jamaica Tallawahs have won the tournament twice each.

Some of the biggest names from Windies cricket -- Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine -- and foreign cricketers have played in the tournament.

There will be no crowds allowed in the tournament. A total of 255 players have assembled here and all of them have been asked to enter the bio-bubble.

The match will start at 7:30 IST and will be telecast live on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Stars Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD and also Disney+ Hotstar and Star Sports Digital Platform.

Teams (from):

Trinbago Knight Riders: Kieron Pollard (captain), Denesh Ramdin, Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Khary Pierre, Anderson Phillip, Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, Jayden Seales, Ali Khan, Ravi Rampaul, Leonardo Julien; Overseas: Isuru Udana, Ali Khan, Yasir Shah, Colin Munro.

Guyana Amazon Warriors: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Imran Tahir, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Romario Shepherd, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Anthony Bramble, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd, Waqar Salamkheil, Nial Smith, Gudakesh Motie; Overseas: Imran Tahir, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Waqar Salamkheil, Naveen-ul-Haq.