The PSL moved into the IPL window this year, to improve the quality and availability of overseas players they’d be able to sign. On that count, the calculated risk they took appears to have paid off, with the roster for the tenth edition of the PSL including the widest array of high-profile overseas players they have managed in the post-covid era.
David Warner,
Daryl Mitchell, Jason Holder, Rassie van der Dussen and
Kane Williamson were among the biggest names the PSL signed up at the draft this year, held at the sprawling Hazuri Bagh at Lahore Fort. While the ceremony itself was a stuttering, protracted affair, which, from start to finish, lasted a whopping seven hours, the cack-handed packaging should not detract from what may be a very decent product after all.
For the first time, partial player availability, so often a hindrance during earlier editions, was not a concern. The only other cricket during the time the PSL will be played – between early April and late May – is
IPL 2025. The IPL auction has concluded, and any players left over are definitively available, effectively meaning every player in the draft had communicated their complete willingness to participate in the PSL in full.
The decision did not come without trade-offs; Rashid Khan, for example, signed a three-year contract with Lahore Qalandars in 2023, but will instead be at the IPL. But players from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, so often unavailable because the PSL’s traditional February-March window clashed with their home international season, were signed in droves.
New Zealanders, in particular were popular; more than half of the platinum picks at the draft were Kiwis:
Finn Allen, Mitchell,
Adam Milne, Michael Bracewell, and
Mark Chapmanwere all picked in the highest category, with all of them first-time PSL participants. They were topped up in the supplementary pick with Williamson and
Kyle Jamieson, also first-timers.
Over the years, it has been overseas power-hitting the PSL has relished, each franchise comfortable that there was enough domestic fast bowling to go around without being spread too thin. That changed this time: Milne, Sean Abbott, Jamieson, Nahid Rana, Holder,
Corbin Bosch, Alzarri Joseph and Josh Little were among the overseas quicks snapped up.
That may partially be explained by the availability of players who might otherwise not been options for the PSL, but perhaps also hints at the waning confidence in local fast bowling talent among the franchises.
There were departures and farewells for players who have become synonymous with a particular franchise.
Faheem Ashraf left Islamabad United having been a one-franchise player until now, winning three titles. If there was a general indication his star was waning, Quetta Gladiators clearly thought otherwise; they used their wildcard on him to pick him in the Platinum category, rather than the Silver he had been assigned.
There was movement out of the Gladiators, too.
Sarfaraz Ahmed, their captain for the first eight seasons and player for each of the last nine, was not part of the draft; Gladiators owner Nadeem Omar said he would be involved with the franchise in a “new role”.
Mohammad Hasnain, meanwhile, also leaves the Gladiators to link up with Multan Sultans. Poignantly, Ihsanullah, Sultans’ quickest bowler until 2023, was left unpicked after an independent review found the
PCB’s botched handling of an elbow injury had done him significant harm. Sultans’ owner Ali Tareen said last week medical consensus was he would never hit those speeds again.
Meanwhile, there was a splitting up of one family. Last year,
Naseem Shah and both of his younger brothers,
Hunain and
Ubaid, played for United; Hunain went on to
hit the winning runs. This time, Sultans plumped for the youngest, with Ubaid leaving the defending champions to join the 2021 winners.
Last year, the PCB told ESPNcricinfo was to co-exist with the IPL rather than compete with it. The PSL draft this time around may have wanted organisation and production quality, but did offer a little glimpse into what that might look like once April rolls around.
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