All six teams of the league are happy with their picks during the draft

The HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 8 draft took place on Thursday night, where the six franchises picked 18 players each in six categories, which included 36 international players.

The showpiece tournament of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will take place from 13 February to 19 March 20, 2023.

A great development this season is that four teenagers and another few players from the Pakistan Junior League have also been drafted in for the season by teams this season. It would ensure the injection of young blood into the tournament which will ultimately benefit the Pakistan cricket team.

Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga (Quetta Gladiators) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Peshawar Zalmi), England’s Adil Rashid (Multan Sultans) and Australia’s Matthew Wade (Karachi Kings), New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham (Peshawar Zalmi) and South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi (Karachi Kings) will feature the showcase T20 tournament for the first time.

The stakeholders of all the franchises seem quite satisfied with their selection and maintained that they were largely able to rope in players as per their plans.

Lahore Qalandars’ Sameen Rana stated that they had picked a balanced squad that can replicate last season’s success. He claimed that his bowling attack, which has likes of captain Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Rashid Khan, is the best one in the entire tournament.

“We have stuck to our guns in every season and this year around, as we are defending champions, our goal is to come up with a combination that replicates our previous fortune, let’s see if I have managed to succeed,” he said while talking to Bol News. “I believe our roster is very balanced. We have our regulars as well as young guns who have been polished in the player development programme. We can say that our bowling lineup is the most balanced among the PSL teams at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Quetta Gladiators’ owner Nadeem Omar stated that they picked exactly who they wanted; for instance, Naseem Shah and there were no doubts about it.

“We were very clear on our picks,” he said. “We needed Naseem Shah and no one else. That’s who we picked. There were no two opinions about it. Had we not gotten him, we would have picked another fast bowler. But we got him and we are very happy about it. Other players we have picked up are also promising and we will hopefully have a great season ahead.”

Moreover, he talked about Naseem Shah as the potential captain of his franchise. He revealed his plan regarding the leadership of the Gladiators.

“Of course, Sarfaraz will remain our captain for now and then Nawaz has the next right, seeing that he has been with us for so many years now. But after that, Naseem could be a potential captain for the Gladiators. He has the right body language and mindset and we have high hopes for him.”

On the other hand, Islamabad United’s Rehanul Haq is proud of his pick Hassan Nawaz, who he claims to be extremely talented and the one to look forward to. According to him, the two-time PSL champions have made some seriously exciting selections this season.

“You should keep an eye on Hassan Nawaz, he is a brilliant batter,” maintained Rehan. “The best thing is he is still young and developing his technique as well as his muscles, so there is so much room for improvement on his already great form.”

He also mentioned the names of Zeeshan Zameer, a young lanky fast bowler and Abrar Ahmed, the mystery spinner who took the world by storm on his debut, as the players that will be a treat to watch.

“Another great PSL find is Zeeshan Zameer. He only bowled 15 balls in the previous season before he was injured and benched. The ball he pitched to dismiss Babar Azam from the crease is still a shot that is used for highlights, imagine what he would be able to do if he played the whole season.”

“I am also very excited to see Abrar on the field,” he added. “He along with Shadab Khan can be a lethal asset for us. The duo can create a bowling partnership that can literally win us matches. I have no qualms in saying that in all the PSL drafts, this year we have the most exciting picks and we have really high hopes for them all.”

Multan Sultans’ Director Haider Azhar shared that they had three different game plans before heading into the drafts. He stated that franchises must be ready to pick players from the available pool of players as they choose them only on their turn.

He shared that they were fortunate to pick Arafat Minhas and Adil Rashid in the Supplementary category.

“The whole plan for drafts depends on when is your turn to pick a player,” he said. “So, we had three strategies mapped out, depending on if we do or don’t get to pick Naseem Shah. Since that did not come to pass, we were able to pick Arafat Minhas, who is a great emerging player with amazing international potential.

“It was unexpected that he would be available in Supplementary round 2 and also Adil Rashid being ignored till that category was very fortunate for us and we are very happy with the picks we have made.”

He further highlighted that they have picked players keeping in view their availability. They are glad that they have players almost like-for-like replacements for each player who will leave for national duties.

“We have set our roster such that the availability of players is overlapping and we will have enough players at each time in the tournament,” he mentioned. “Of course, we did have our sights set on Naseem, but we are okay with the fact that we did not get to pick him, but David Miller is a good substitute for him and I think our team is very balanced this time around.”

Furthermore, Karachi Kings’ Imran Ahad Khan is content with the squad they picked during the drafts. He was proud of the fact that five of their six international picks will be available for the whole season.

“We are very happy with our selections. The plan we made has been executed with perfection. All of the players we targeted are now on our roster, so the night has been extremely successful for us,” he stated. “Five out of our six international players are available for the full season and the sixth, Tabraiz, might have to go play for South Africa in March, but that depends on his team’s national selection.”

He also talked about former Pakistan U19 captain Qasim Akram and how valuable he can be as a player.

“We are really excited about picking Qasim Akram, we would love to see what he can do on the field for us, he is also an emerging player and we have really high hopes for him.”

Peshawar Zalmi head coach Muhammad Akram pointed towards a greater cause of producing players for the national side.

“Look we need to keep in mind that all of us are collectively working under the umbrella of the PCB and ultimately any player that emerges from our ranks will play at the national level. That will always remain the ultimate goal,” he said.

He added that Zalmi is now looking to rebuild their team around the star Pakistan batter and their captain Babar Azam so that he can mentor the youngsters.

“At the moment our strategy is to rebuild the team around Babar and give him a younger lot of players whom he can mentor. What would be better for a young player than to share a dressing room with the current Pakistan captain?” he stated. “Babar has also matured as a captain in the past year or so and that was evident in my chat with him. Being with Zalmi is going to be a great learning experience for him too because we have the likes of Inzamamul Haq and Darren Sammy in our lot and they both have been successful captains in their playing days.”

Furthermore, the much-talked-about Saim Ayub is a part of Zalmi now and they are thrilled with the inclusion.

“We are really excited about picking Saim as well, he seems to be in good shape and we hope he will bring us a lot of luck and be great on the field,” he concluded.

Here’s a look at each team’s picks as provided by the PCB:

Islamabad United:  Alex Hales (England), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan), Shadab Khan (all Platinum), Asif Ali, Fazal Haq Farooqi (Afghanistan), Wasim Jr (all Diamond), Azam Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali (all Gold), Abrar Ahmed, Colin Munro (New Zealand), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Rumman Raees, Sohaib Maqsood (all Silver), Hassan Nawaz, Zeeshan Zamir (both Emerging). Moeen Ali (England) and Mubasir Khan (Supplementary)

Karachi Kings: Haider Ali, Imran Tahir (South Africa), Matthew Wade (Australia) (all Platinum), Imad Wasim, James Fuller (New Zealand), James Vince (both England) (all Diamond), Andrew Tye (Australia), Mohammad Amir, Shoaib Malik (all Gold), Aamer Yamin, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Akhlaq, Sharjeel Khan, Tayyab Tahir (all Silver), Irfan Khan Niazi, Qasim Akram (both Emerging). Mohammad Umar and Tabraiz Shamsi (South Africa) (Supplementary)

Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Shaheen Shah Afridi (all Platinum), Dawid Wiese (Namibia), Hussain Talat, Haris Rauf (all Diamond), Abdullah Shafique, Liam Dawson (England), Sikander Raza (Zimbabwe) (all Gold), Ahmad Daniyal, Dilbar Hussain, Harry Brook (England), Kamran Ghulam, Mirza Tahir Baig (all Silver), Shawaiz Irfan, Zaman Khan (both Emerging). Jalat Khan and Jordan Cox (England) (both Supplementary)

Multan Sultans: David Miller (South Africa), Josh Little (Ireland), Mohammad Rizwan (all Platinum), Khushdil Shah, Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Shan Masood (all Diamond), Akeal Hosein (West Indies), Shahnawaz Dahani, Tim David (Australia) (all Gold), Anwar Ali, Sameen Gul, Sarwar Afridi, Usama Mir, Usman Khan (both Silver), Abbas Afridi, Ihsanullah (both Emerging). Adil Rashid (England) and Arafat Minhas (Supplementary).

Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam, Rovman Powell (West Indies), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka), (all Platinum), Mujeeb Ur Rehman (Afghanistan), Sherfane Rutherford (West Indies), Wahab Riaz (all Diamond), Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris (all Gold), Aamer Jamal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore (England), Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Usman Qadir (all Silver), Haseebullah Khan, Sufyan Muqeem (both Emerging). Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand) (Supplementary). Peshawar Zalmi will pick their second Supplementary at the Replacement Draft.

Quetta Gladiators: Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka) (all Platinum), Iftikhar Ahmed, Jason Roy (England), Odean Smith (West Indies) (all Diamond), Ahsan Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Sarfaraz Ahmed (all Gold), Mohammad Zahid, Naveen-ul-Haq (Afghanistan), Umar Akmal, Umaid Asif, Will Smeed (England) (all Silver), Aimal Khan, Abdul Wahid Bangalzai (both Emerging). Martin Guptill (New Zealand) and Omair Bin Yousuf (Supplementary).