Ashwin will double up as Dublin Guardians’ captain and mentor. Ashwin, now 39, had announced his IPL retirement at the end of the 2025 season and is currently in action for San Francisco Unicorns in MLC 2026 in the USA.

The league, launched in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, features teams from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It is also Europe’s first ICC-sanctioned multi-country franchise T20 league.

South Africa seamer Lungi Ngidi is set to turn out for Glasgow Cosmic along with left-arm fast bowler Duan Jansen and left-arm fingerspinner Keshav Maharaj, who is currently at MLC with Texas Super Kings.

Marsh will team up with Smith for Amsterdam Flames while Mitchell Owen, who is in terrific form for Washington Freedom in MLC 2026, will represent Rotterdam.

Among New Zealand players, Mitchell Santner and Trent Boult, who were recently part of Mumbai Indians in the IPL, will reunite at Edinburgh Castle Rockers. Santner is also set to captain the franchise. Meanwhile, hard-hitting opener Finn Allen will be on Glasgow’s books. Michael Bracewell, who opted out of Test cricket and became a white-ball specialist, will represent Amsterdam.

Former Australia batter Matthew Hayden will coach Glasgow, while James Foster will be in charge of Edinburgh.

The Netherlands pair of Scott Edwards and Bas de Leede will play for Amsterdam as their local affiliated players.

Moises Henriques, the former Australia allrounder, is set to feature as a European local for Glasgow, having switched to Portugal.

The six franchises will fill their squads at the draft, which will be held on July 2. The competition will run from August 26 to September 20 in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.