Chris Gayle will partner with Tom Banton as the hard-hitting openers were picked in the Pakistan Super League draft by Quetta Gladiators. Chris Lynn will move from Lahore Qalandars to Multan Sultans while Hasan Ali and David Miller were picked by Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi respectively.
Qalandars will have the services of Rashid Khan, who also have Joe Denly and Samit Patel. The draft ended with Sultans picking Carlos Brathwaite while Dale Steyn, who has opted out of the next edition of the Indian Premier League, will feature for Gladiators. There were no takers for the top-ranked T20I batsman, Dawid Malan, with the left-hander expected to be on international duty as part of the England squad during the tournament.
Mohammad Rizwan, fresh from his career-best performance against New Zealand in the third T20I, was picked by Sultans with Adam Lyth also returning to the franchise. Among Pakistan players, Imam ul Haq will join the likes of Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz and Kamran Akmal at Zalmi, while two-time PSL winner Iftikhar Ahmed picked by United, who beefed up their death bowling by adding Chris Jordan to their line-up as well.
Afghanistan’s pair of Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman also found pickers with the former going to Karachi while the latter was chosen by Zalmi. All-rounder Dan Christian will also join Nabi, with Sherfane Rutherford heading to Zalmi. Philip Salt, the hard-hitting batsman, will stay with United and will be joined by countryman Reece Topley.
The tournament will start on February 20 and the final will be played on March 22 with the tournament to be completely played in Karachi and Lahore. The decision was taken to restrict the tournament to just two venues to restrict the movement of the six franchises because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Squads at the end of the PSL 2021 draft:
Islamabad United: Shadab Khan, Alex Hales, Colin Munro, Faheem Ashraf, Hussain Talat, Asif Ali, Musa Khan, Zafar Gohar, Hasan Ali Lewis Gregory, Phil Salt, Rohail Nazir, Reece Topley, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Ahmed Saifi Abdullah, Chris Jordan, Akif Javed.
Multan Sultans: Shahid Afridi, Rilee Rossouw, Sohail Tanvir, Imran Tahir, Khushdil Shah, James Vince, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir, Chris Lynn, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohaibullah, Adam Lyth, Shahnawaz Dhani, Muhammad Umar, Imran Khan Sr., Carlos Brathwaite.
Lahore Qalandars: Mohammad Hafeez, Shaheen Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, David Wiese, Haris Rauf, Ben Dunk, Dilbar Hussain, Sohail Akhtar, Rashid Khan, Samit Patel, Tom Abell, Zeeshan Ashraf, Salman Agha, Mohammad Faizan, Maaz Khan, Zaid Alam, Joe Denly, Ahmad Danyal.
Peshawar Zalmi: Wahab Riaz, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Liam Livingstone, Haider Ali, David Miller, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Sherfane Rutherford, Amad Butt, Umaid asif, Saqib Mahmood, Imam-ul-Haq, M Imran Randhawa, Mohammad Irfan Sr., Ibrar Ahmed, Mohammad Imran, Ravi Bopara, Amir Khan.
Quetta Gladiators: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Azam Khan, Naseem Shah, Zahid Mehmood, Anwar Ali, Chris Gayle, Tom Banton, Usman Shinwari, Cameron Delport, Qais Ahmed, Abdul Nasir, Saim Ayub, Arish Ali Khan, Dale Steyn, Usman Khan.
Karachi Kings: Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir, Colin Ingram, Imad Wasim, Amir Yamin, Sharjeel Khan, Waqas Maqsood, Arshad Iqbal, Mohammad Nabi, Dan Christian, Chadwick Walton, Joe Clarke, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Ilyas, Zeeshan Malik, Qasim Akram, Noor Ahmad.
