India`s top archery talents, including Olympians Deepika Kumari, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, and Abhishek Verma, are set to headline the inaugural edition of the Archery Premier League (APL), the Archery Association of India (AAI) confirmed on Monday.

The APL, a six-team franchise-based tournament, is being hailed as a groundbreaking global initiative in the sport. Scheduled to take place in October at the Yamuna Sports Complex in New Delhi, the 11-day event will bring together the finest names in recurve and compound archery, both from India and around the world, as reported by PTI earlier.

Unlike traditional formats, the inaugural season is expected to adopt a draft system to form the teams, rather than a player auction. Each franchise will feature eight archers, four men and four women. Of the eight, teams can sign up to two foreign players, with at least one overseas athlete required to feature in the playing four. The recurve and compound archers will shoot 70m and 50m respectively in a unique team format under floodlights.