Celebrity Clasico 2017: Complete list of players
What's the story?
The 2017 edition of the Celebrity Clasico between Indian cricketers and Bollywood stars will feature the likes of Ranbir Kapoor, MS Dhoni and many more. Virat Kohli-led All Heart Football Club will take on Abhishek Bachchan's All Stars Football Club at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai on October 15.
Indian national hockey side keeper PR Sreejesh, tennis star Rohan Bopanna and several Indian stars including the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra feature in Virat Kohli's 25-man squad. While Bachchan's team will see Ranbir Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Arjun Kapoor and co. line up.
Here is the complete squad of both All Heart FC and All Stars FC who will compete in the friendly match.
All Heart FC: Virat Kohli (C), MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, PR Sreejesh, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rohan Bopanna, Anup Sridhar, Yuzvendra Chahal, B. Mangaldas, Anirudh Srikanth, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kedar Jadhav, S. Badrinath, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane, Pawan Negi, Digvijay, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Jonty Rhodes and Umesh Yadav.
All Stars FC: Abhishek Bachchan (C), Ranbir Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Arjun Kapoor, Dino Morea, Shoojit Sircar, Kartik Aaryan, Armaan Jin, Shabir Ahluwalia, Sachiin Joshi, Nishant Mehra, Aparshakti Khurana, Jim Sarbh, Vivian Dsena, Karan Veer Mehra, Raj Kundra, Aadar Jain, Vikram Thapa, Rohan Shrestha, Marc Robinson, Harpreet Baweja and Shashank Khaitan.
In case you didn't know...
Last year was the first time that a match of such magnitude was held and that saw several Indian stars, including the likes of MS Dhoni, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane and Umesh Yadav feature for Virat Kohli's side. On the other side, several Bollywood stars including Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea, Shoojit Sircar, Arjun Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan and Raj Kundra featured.
The heart of the matter
The match ended in a 2-2 draw as Yuvraj Singh and KL Rahul's goals were cancelled out by Abhishek Bachchan's side. The money from the match will go to a charity and the football match is an initiative by Cornerstone Sport and GS Entertainment.
Video
Video: Highlights from the Indian Cricketers vs Bollywood stars football match
Author's take
The match was a huge success last year and the return of several cricketing and Bollywood stars will only make it a bigger event this time around. With India having a series against New Zealand shortly after the game, it will be interesting to see how the game pans out.