365 Sporting Days

2020 will see the 5th series of PSL, and this one is a special series, all 34 matches are due to take place in Pakistan with UAE as a back up. The opening ceremony will be held in Karachi with the playoffs and Final scheduled for Lahore. Matches are planned for Multan and Rawalpindi too. This is wonderful news for the cricket crazy nation of Pakistan! The matches are due to take place between 20 February 2020 and 22 March 2020.

The PSL consists of 6 teams –

• Islamabad United
• Karachi Kings
• Lahore Qalanders
• Multan Sultans
• Peshawar Zalmi
• Quetta Gladiators

Each squad must be built within a budget of $1.1million and consist of a maximum of 18 players. Players are categorised across different categories valued as follows:

Platinum players have a base price of $147,000 and a maximum price of $218,000.

Diamond players have a base price of $73,000 and a maximum price of $103,000.

Gold players have a base price of $44,000 and a maximum price of $58,000.

Silver players have a base price of $15,000 and a maximum price of $35,000.

Emerging players have a base price of $6,500 and a maximum price of $9,500.

Each team has retained a number of players with that number added to by a draft. The retained players are listed below

• Islamabad United: Shadab Khan (platinum), Faheem Ashraf (diamond, brand ambassador), Asif Ali (diamond), Luke Ronchi (gold, player mentor), Hussain Talat (gold), Amad Butt, Musa Khan, Rizwan Hussain (all silver)
• Karachi Kings: Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir (both platinum), Imad Wasim (diamond, brand ambassador), Iftikhar Ahmed (diamond), Aamir Yamin (gold), Usama Mir (silver), Umer Khan (emerging)
• Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez (both platinum), Shaheen Shah Afridi (diamond, brand ambassador), David Wiese, Usman Shinwari (both diamond), Haris Rauf, Sohail Akhtar (both gold), Salman Butt (silver)
• Multan Sultans: Mohammad Irfan (platinum), Shahid Afridi (diamond, player mentor), James Vince (gold, brand ambassador), Junaid Khan (gold), Ali Shafiq, Shan Masood (both silver), Mohammad Ilyas (emerging)
• Peshawar Zalmi: Hasan Ali, Kieron Pollard, Wahab Riaz (all platinum), Kamran Akmal (diamond, brand ambassador), Darren Sammy (gold, player mentor), Imam-ul-Haq (gold), Umar Amin (silver)
• Quetta Gladiators: Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed (both platinum), Shane Watson (diamond, player mentor), Ahmed Shehzad (Diamond), Umar Akmal (gold, brand ambassador), Mohammad Hasnain (gold), Ahsan Ali, Naseem Shah (both silver)

The draft took place today with 500 players making themselves available – the teams will be made up with the following players added –

• Islamabad United – Dale Steyn, Colin Ingram (Platinum), Colin Monro (Diamond), Rumman Raees (Gold), Zafar Gohar, Phil Salt (Silver), Rassie van der Dussen, Saif Badar (Supplementary).
• Karachi Kings – Alex Hales (Platinum), Chris Jordan (Diamond), Sharjeel Khan, Cameron Delport (Gold), Ali Khan, Dan Lawrence, Mohammad Rizwan, Umaid Asif (Silver), Arshad Iqbal (Emerging), Liam Plunkett, Awais Zia, (Supplementary.
• Lahore Qalanders – Chris Lynn (Platinum), Samit Patel (Gold), Seekkuge Prasanna, Ben Dunk, Jaahid Ali, Farzan Raja (Silver), Lendl Simmons, Dilbar Hussain (Supplementary).
• Multan Sultans – Moeen Ali, Rilee Rossouw (Platinum), Zeeshan Ashhraf, Ravi Bopara (Diamond), Sohail Tanvir (Gold), Khushdil Shah, Fabian Allen, Usman Qadir (Silver), Rohail Nazir (Emerging), Imran Tahir, Bilawal Bhatti (Supplementary).
• Peshawar Zalmi – Tom Banton, Shoaib Malik (Diamond), Liam Dawson (Gold), Mohammad Mohsin, Rahat Ali, Adil Amin, Dwaine Pretorius (Silver), Liam Livingstone, Haider Ali (Supplementary).
• Quetta Gladiators – Jason Roy (Platinum), Ben Cutting (Diamond), Fawad Alam (Gold), Tymal Mills, Abdul Nasir, Sohail Khan (Silver), Khurram Manzoor, Keemo Paul (Supplementary).

As I’m writing from England I’ve highlighted the 14 players from the English counties, with Dan Lawrence from the team I support featuring for the first time. The 22 year old was a key part of the Essex team that won both the T20 Blast and County Championship in 2019. He’s scored 1086 T20 runs at an average of 27.15 and a strike rate of 142.33. He turns his arm over too bowling taking 17 wickets at an average of 19.11. He was picked as the Local Icon by The London Spirit team based at Lord’s for the inaugural 100 competition taking place in the summer of 2020.

21 year old Tom Banton of Somerset is another young player who’s impressed in England, scoring 647 T20 runs at a average of 35.94 and a strike rate of 155.15, he also keeps wicket.

I’ve found the PSL to be a good competition between bat and ball, my team has been Karachi Kings, and that stays the same, in spite of Ravi Bopara moving to the Multan Sultans. I’ll be hoping for success for Karachi and a well attended great competition all round!