Why Abhishek-led Amritsar Soormas is the team to watch in Punjab cricket

Spread the news

Led by India star Abhishek Sharma and powered by Naman Dhir, the Soormas clinched the inaugural Sher-E-Punjab T20 League title with eight-wicket win over Ludhiana Lions in Sunday’s final

Chandigarh, September 14

What does it take for a cricket team to feel like it belongs to a city?

Perhaps it is not just the name on the jersey. Perhaps it is the player a young boy looks up to, the familiar faces in the squad or the feeling that somewhere between the roar of a boundary and the fall of a wicket, the city sees a little bit of itself.

For Amritsar Soormas, that connection was there from the beginning.

The city-based franchise entered the inaugural Sher-E-Punjab T20 League with India T20 star Abhishek Sharma as its marquee player. And the choice could hardly have been more fitting. Abhishek, who grew up playing cricket in Amritsar, was not just the biggest name in the squad, he brought with him a connection to the city that went beyond cricket.

“It is an honour to lead this team and a deeply emotional responsibility as well. Punjab has given me everything in my cricketing journey,” Abhishek had said ahead of the tournament.

But the Soormas were never meant to be a one-player story.

Alongside him, the Soormas put together a team that blended experience with younger Punjab talent. Mayank Markande brought his leg-spin and domestic experience, while Naman Dhir quickly became one of the tournament’s most talked-about players.

Dhir’s season, in particular, gave the team a different kind of momentum. His astonishing 173 off 64 balls against Mohali Kings was one of the innings that defined the tournament. He went on to finish with 655 runs, turning himself from an important squad member into one of the faces of the competition.

“It feels great. Now we are back in the tournament and I feel we are peaking at the right time as a team,” Dhir had said after his explosive knock.

Abhishek, too, had his moments. There was the explosive 49 off 15 balls against Fazilka Falcons, along with his contribution with the ball. For a team built around a player who already carried the weight of national expectations, it was a reminder of just how much firepower the Soormas had at their disposal.

And they were hardly alone in carrying the star appeal of the new league. The Soormas were part of a six-team competition that brought some of Punjab’s most recognisable young and established cricketers under city-based franchises. Fazilka Falcons had India captain Shubman Gill, Ludhiana Lions had left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, Jalandhar Warriors featured wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh, Mohali Kings had all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, while Gurnoor Brar was the marquee player for Bathinda Royals.

For a tournament built around city identities, those names gave the league an instant familiarity. But the idea was not simply to put established stars on a new stage.

It was an attempt to give Punjab’s domestic and emerging cricketers a bigger stage and to give a new generation a chance to share a dressing room with players they had grown up watching.

The inaugural edition ran from August 30 to September 13, with all six franchises playing their 27-match competition at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali. More than 450 Punjab players entered the auction, underlining the scale of the talent pool the league was looking to tap.

And Amritsar had the kind of story that made that experiment particularly interesting.

A local star. A young batter making noise. Established Punjab players. And a city with a cricketing culture that has long produced talent.

By the end of the inaugural season, the Soormas had added one more chapter to that story.

They beat Ludhiana Lions by eight wickets in the Sunday’s final to become the first Sher-E-Punjab T20 League champions.

For now, though, perhaps the more interesting question is not what the Soormas have won.

It is what they have begun to represent.

Because franchises come and go, tournaments grow and change, and players eventually move on. But when a team carries the name of a city, it becomes part of something larger.

For Amritsar Soormas, that journey may only have just begun.