The players aiming to topple world champion Luke Littler in Bahrain are confirmed

Warrington’s teenage sensation will be back in action less than a fortnight after winning the PDC World Darts Championship as he travels to the Middle East to defend his Bahrain Darts Masters title, with the tournament running across two days starting from Thursday, January 16. Littler won the tournament on his World Series debut last year shortly after reaching the Worlds final as an unseeded debutant, which catapulted him into superstardom. Now, he will defend his title against six of the seven players who will be joining him in this year’s Premier League Darts when it gets underway next month.

Luke Humphries, Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey, Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall will be competing but Michael Van Gerwen – the man Littler beat in the Alexandra Palace final on Friday – is not travelling due to family commitments. His space among the eight PDC representatives will be taken by Peter Wright, and they will be joined by six players from the PDC Asian Tour who competed at the World Darts Championship. PDC Asian Champion Lourence Ilagan one of three Filipino stars in action alongside 2024 PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Alexis Toylo and Paolo Nebrida, who dumped out Jim Williams and Ross Smith to reach the last 32 at Alexandra Palace.



Hong Kong’s Lok Yin Lee has been included after his run to the second round at the World Darts Championship, while China’s Xiaochen Zong and India’s Nitin Kumar will also lock horns against the PDC’s elite. The 16-player field is completed by Bahrain duo Basem Mahmood and Abdulla Saeed, who won through last month’s Bahrain Qualifiers to confirm their World Series of Darts returns. Viewers in the UK will be able to watch the tournament live on ITV Sport.

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