Biratnagar Kings have raised the standards for the second edition of the Nepal Premier League after announcing two legendary cricketers in their squad.

They left fans awestruck on October 31, when the franchise representing the eastern-most part of the country revealed South Africa’s Faf du Plessis as one of their foreign signings.

Du Plessis, a two-time IPL champion with the Chennai Super Kings, is one of the best in the business, having played franchise cricket throughout the world. Further, he was once the captain of the Proteas in all three formats—T20I, ODI and Test.

And as the buzz among the Nepali cricket fans regarding the chance of seeing du Plessis hitting the maximums at the TU International Cricket Ground was far from being settled, Biratnagar Kings dropped another bombshell on Sunday—announcing that they were retaining the former New Zealand international Martin Guptill.

Guptill did not have a season as he, as well as the fans, expected during the first edition of the NPL. In six matches he played for the Kings, Guptill managed 137 runs with only one fifty, 15 fours and five sixes.

Still, the Kings, who finished sixth last time, retained Guptill, who celebrated his 39th birthday on September 30, for the second season. The reason: the franchise is well aware of his batting prowess.

It is why, giving a hint with a photo of his back at their social media handles, Biratnagar Kings wrote, “He’s back to finish what he started. No excuses. No hesitation. Just one mission—the trophy.”

As they did before revealing du Plessis on Friday, Biratnagar Kings kept the fans in suspense with another post captioning, “This time he’s back to dominate, not participate.”

At 5pm, it was finally revealed. A video of Guptill walking past the NPL trophy before standing behind it, the Kings stated, “No more talk. No more waiting. It’s time to take what’s his. The beast is back—and this time, he’s unstoppable.”

Guptill is undoubtedly a beast with the bat, and his stats say as much. He ranks 24th in the list of batsmen with the most runs for the Blackcaps in Tests, with 2,586 runs in 89 innings of 47 matches.

However, in the shorter formats, he is at the top. Guptill is New Zealand’s all-time highest runscorer in T20Is. In 118 innings of 122 matches for the Blackcaps in the shortest format, Guptill has 3,531 runs, which include two centuries and 20 half-centuries.

Guptill is the only New Zealand batter to have over 3,000 runs in T20Is, a feat that was not matched by even the likes of Brendon McCullum (2,140 runs) and Kane Williamson (2,575 runs). Williamson could have reached the mark, but he retired from T20Is on Sunday after playing in 93 T20Is since 2011.

Guptill is also the batsman with the most number of boundaries for the country—309 fours and 173 sixes.

Further, Guptill is the only New Zealand batter to have scored a double century in ODIs—a knock of 237 not out against the West Indies during the World Cup on March 21, 2015. The score still stands as the second-highest individual run scored in an ODI inning, only behind India’s Rohit Sharma’s 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014.

Overall, Guptill is still in the third position for the most runs in ODIs for New Zealand. He is behind Ross Taylor (8,607 runs) and Stephen Fleming (8,007 runs), with 7,346 runs in 195 innings (198 matches).

Following the retention of Guptill, the Kings have signed four foreign players. The other two previous signings for the franchise were George Munsey from Scotland and Sam Heazlett from Australia.

Kathmandu Gorkhas and Chitwan Rhinos have also already signed four players each.

Meanwhile, in another retention revealed on Sunday, Sudurpaschim Royals, the runner-up of the first edition, are bringing back Harmeet Singh of the USA. Singh was the most economical bowler in the NPL last year.

Moreover, there have been some other great signings from other clubs as well. For instance, the first foreign signing of the second NPL was Chris Lynn, the Australian who is the all-time leading run scorer of the Big Bash League with 3,955 runs across 125 innings in 127 matches.

Similarly, South Africa’s Wayne Parnell, who has been signed by defending champion Janakpur Bolts, and England’s Dawid Malan, who will play for Chitwan Rhinos, are other big names.

The teams have also retained big names who were there in the first edition. For instance, the Rhinos brought back Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir and England’s Ravi Bopara for the second season.