PSL teams all set for players’ draft for eighth edition

The draft ceremony for the eighth edition of the Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) will be held in Karachi today.

The six teams will be able to draft players from a pool of more than a 1,000 local and foreign players.

All the six teams, including Peshawar Zalmi, Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Multan Sultans and Islamabad United are looking to draft in a squad of 18 players.

Of these, they are allowed to include six foreign players.

Peshawar Zalmi has retained seven of their players from the previous season and are looking for 11 new players in the draft to complete their team.

The remaining five teams retained eight of their players and are thus only looking to add just 10 new players.

Zalmi, Kings name their leaders

With both Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings undergoing some major personnel changes in the close season, the former has announced newly acquired player, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, as their captain for the upcoming PSL season.

Babar had signed for Peshawar Zalmi side from Karachi Kings.

The signing was a little curious because while Babar is one of Pakistan’s top ranked batsmen currently and led Pakistan to the final of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia last month, his leadership skills with Karachi Kings saw them finish bottom of the table for PSL 2022, winning just one match out of the 10 they played.

Meanwhile, Karachi Kings unveiled Imad Wasim as their captain for the next season.

Imad Wasim has proven his mettle in the short format tournament, having powered Karachi Kings to PSL champions in 2020.

He is seen to be the most successful captain of Karachi Kings by far, having captained in 41 games overall, winning 20 of them.

Coach announcements

More than the captains, perhaps the most important post in any team is the coah.

South Africa’s Johan Botha has been announced as the new coach of Karachi Kings. He has previously coached Islamabad United in PSL 6.

Under his coaching, Islamabad United topped the league round but fell out in the eliminator round.