PSL - Draft analysis
The PSL draft took place a couple of weeks ago, ahead of PSL 7, which is scheduled to begin in late January. Complete squads have now been finalised, though in the current cricketing climate it’s highly likely there will be changes until & during the tournament. Alas, I’ll do my best to cover how I thought each team faired.
Coming into the draft, each team had announced their retentions (they were allowed up to 8) on December 10th, giving us a rough idea of what each franchise thought their core group of players would be. This resulted in the following:
There weren’t too many surprises here, given the changes in draft regulations, we knew coming into it that some teams would struggle to retain all of the assets they wanted to. Azam Khan to Islamabad was probably the biggest news of this pre-draft window, thought of by many as one of the most exciting domestic t20 batters, it seems like a great fit for both Azam and Islamabad, who also get a domestic keeper, as well as a great batting talent. I’m not sure what Quetta were thinking by agreeing to this, for a side that’s often struggled with a lack of boundary hitters, they’ve let one of their players with the highest ceiling in this regard, leave the franchise. From reports, apparently Azam wanted to keep wicket and obviously with Sarfaraz as captain, the two can’t go hand in hand. A tough decision had to be made somewhere and in my opinion they’ve made the incorrect one.
There was also a fairly big name missing from the Lahore Qalandars retention list - Fakhar Zaman, a player that has flattered to deceive at times but there’s no question that on his day, he is one of the better white ball batters in Pakistan. It was certainly a surprise that he wasn’t on the original retention list. In any case, it didn't matter anyway as Lahore decided to re-sign him with their solitary platinum pick during the draft.
I’ll leave it at that for now, other than those two, there wasn’t any major shocks and I’ll go onto cover the other changes later in this article.
From a general point of view, recruitment of this draft was of a fairly high standard in comparison to some other t20 leagues. Of course, there were some choices/decisions I disagreed with but that’s always going to be the case and if every draft was perfect, there wouldn’t be much entertainment.
As I said, the standard of recruitment in PSL is generally fairly high, this was sort of spearheaded by Multan and Islamabad in earlier seasons and other franchises have followed suit recently. It’s also helped by it being a six team tournament and with a strong pool of domestic players, particularly in some area’s (Fast bowlers, left arm pace & SLA) it means there are often some decent t20 players/prospects that go undrafted. It’s prompted calls for further teams to be added to the competition in future seasons, in my opinion this would be a good move, whether it’s one or two teams that are added, it can only be viewed as a positive. Not least because of the fact that four teams out of six currently qualify for the knockout rounds, which doesn’t really reward outstanding recruitment or hinder poor performance. I’m not sure when we’ll get added teams, there’s always issues to navigate in this regard as it doesn’t really benefit the franchises currently in the league, so I’d expect there would have to be extra financial incentive for owners/teams to accept change. Hopefully we get a bigger PSL sooner, rather than later.
At this stage of the draft Islamabad and Peshawar Zalmi probably looked strongest, things can quickly change though and in my opinion a couple of teams had really impressive performances at the draft.
Islamabad United
Islamabad have been one of the smarter sides in recent seasons and had a strong group of 8–10 players to choose from ahead of the retention phase. Retention rules always meant they’d have to make some difficult choices, with teams having to retain three overseas players in the top three categories, meaning you can only retain a maximum of six domestic players in Platinum, Diamond and Gold. Given the amount of options Islamabad had, unless they could get some important players to agree to play in the silver band, it was never likely that they’d manage to retain everyone they wanted.
As it happened, Iftikhar Ahmed and Hussain Talat were the two bigger names they had to release, both of whom have been regulars in recent seasons, though Iftikhar will likely be the bigger loss. Azam Khan was a nice addition and as a pick in the gold category looks like excellent value. Other than that, things went as expected from a retention point of view:
At the draft, Islamabad had one pick each for platinum & diamond, both had to be overseas players. They went for Colin Munro and Marchant de Lange. Personally I think they could’ve done better with these two picks, Mills would’ve been a better option for platinum and they could’ve still got a decent overseas opener in diamond. However player/franchise loyalty is likely a thing here.
Their other picks were largely domestic players, with the exception of Reece Topley (Silver) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (supplementary). Both look like good picks to me and Gurbaz is likely an indication that Islamabad will continue with the overseas top three they adopted last season. Munro, Stirling, Hales and Gurbaz will compete for those three positions.
Losing Iftikhar doesn’t actually seem like a massive issue for Islamabad, given their batting options and batting depth. One area where it could’ve caused issues is losing a potential match up bowler (off spin) from among their top order batters. So their recruitment of Mubasir Khan looks good in this regard, picking up a batting option but also someone that can bowl a decent level of off spin will give them more options. He’s likely to be their first choice emerging player.
Availability issues:
- Zeeshan Zameer - Will miss the first few games due to his participation in the u19 World Cup.
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz - Possible Afghanistan tours against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in February, if they go ahead it’ll likely impact Gurbaz’ involvement in the PSL.
Other than that, Islamambad will have limited availability issues, with the added bonus that none of their other overseas players are involved with their national sides, apart from Paul Stirling but Ireland don’t look to have any imminent international tours.
Possible XI:
Availability is a big plus point for Islamabad, it’ll allow for continuity in selection, something they clearly value based on recent seasons, where they’ve always backed players when they’ve gone through tough patches form. Assessing players on ability rather than shorter-term performances has played a big part in them developing a strong domestic core.
Karachi Kings
Karachi will be looking to bounce back after a poor season last time out, finishing fourth, despite winning the tournament in the season before. Their recruitment looks fairly mixed and they seem to have some fairly obvious gaps in their squad:
From a retentions point of view they’ve done okay. Babar Azam, who will captain the side, was obviously guaranteed platinum and they also picked Imad in that band, who could potentially have more of a role to play with the bat this season. There would surely have to be an added carrot in order to get him to give up captaincy?
Mohammad Amir should theoretically be a decent enough retention but his PSL performances dropped of a cliff last season and while he’s better than he showed in that season, there are certainly doubts over his current fitness/performance levels. Joe Clarke is a high upside retention and impressed in his brief stint for Karachi last season and will likely bat in his best position, which in my opinion is number three.
They’ve also done very well getting Sharjeel Khan in the gold category. Not that I think he’s a particularly amazing batter but based on his NT20 form, plus as a local opener/LHB, I think he would’ve been picked in at least the diamond category.
Their draft picks were relatively uninspiring, not that all of them are poor players but I’m not convinced they’ve covered as many bases as they should’ve. Chris Jordan feels like a very conservative pick and I’m more of a fan of him than most, however, I think there were better options. Lewis Gregory is a good pick, adds great batting depth, is arguably a similar player to Aamer Yamin though. Their silver picks weren’t great, Tom Abell is a quality middle order player, based on their picks at higher categories I’m not convinced he’ll play, even though he is probably needed.
Despite a largely mediocre draft, they’ve still managed to pick up two of the higher quality emerging players available, signing Faisal Akram as their first choice emerging player and then using their RTM for Qasim Akram. Unfortunately for Karachi, both will be part of the Pakistan u19 WC squad, so will miss the start of the tournament, when both are available, you could make a strong case for either to start and if they impress in that WC, we might even see two emerging players in their line up at some point.
Availability issues:
- Chris Jordan - Will likely be involved in England’s t20 series against West Indies, which ends on January 30th. Likely to miss at least two matches, possibly more depending on quarantine roles.
- Romario Shepherd - Similar to Jordan, could be involved for the West Indies against England, less certain to be in the squad.
- Mohammad Nabi - If current plans go ahead, Nabi could miss the entire tournament. With three ODI’s and five t20’s against Zimbabwe planneed for late January/early February and then a series against Bangladesh late February/early March.
- Qasim Akram - u19 World Cup participation, final takes place on February 5th so could miss the Karachi leg if Pakistan reach that.
- Faisal Akram - Same as above - u19 World Cup squad.
Possible XI:
On paper, a lot of ‘bowling options’, though Gregory and Yamin are very much sixth bowling options; you’ll have to hide them as bowlers and they don’t have any particular strengths as t20 bowlers, maybe slight value for Yamin as a new ball bowler but other than that there’s limited usage. While Umaid Asif is bowled over 50% of his deliveries in recent years and Jordan/current version of Amir aren’t exactly multi-phase bowlers either. It’ll likely take some excellent captaincy to figure out workable combinations with this bowling line up.
Lahore Qalandars
Like I mentioned earlier, the non-retention of Fakhar was certainly in surprise, in hindsight it seemed like a planned decision, knowing they’d have the first pick of the draft. Fakhar would’ve also been seen as the easier player to ‘release,’ if Lahore had announced they were retaining Fakhar in platinum, instead of Shaheen Afridi or Rashid Khan it would’ve caused mass chaos/panic, even if the plan would’ve been identical anyway.
The players they retained in diamond category weren’t too surprising either; Wiese, Hafeez and Rauf have all been stalwarts for Lahore in recent seasons and if used in correct roles, all can be important players for them. Their silver retentions were a bit weird and I doubt any of those three players will see regular game time. Daniyal is a decent enough squad option but fast bowlers are something Pakistan have a lot of, so I don’t really understand the need to retain him.
Heading into the draft, Lahore had three of the four gold picks available, this allowed them to do some excellent work, picking up Abdullah Shafique, Phil Salt and Harry Brook. Shafique was one of the most in-demand local batters, based on his recent exploits in his first test matches for Pakistan, plus a good NT20 campaign for Balochistan. Obviously it’s unlikely he’ll have a blitzing campaign, more likely to play an anchor-type role but that can have value, especially when a side has a bowling attack as strong as Lahore do. Phil Salt and Harry Brook are both excellent additions and will be available for the entire competition. On another day, either could’ve been picked in diamond, particularly Phil Salt, who has impressed in t10’s and the Lanka Premier League over the last month or so.
In silver, they picked Kamran Ghulam and Dean Foxcroft. Ghulam is a good pick; a middle order batter that can bowl SLA, a player that probably hasn’t had as many opportunities as he should’ve and scored nearly 270 runs in his four innings in the most recent NT20 cup season. Probably won’t get to bat in his ideal role much, Lahore have enough options to be flexible with their batting order so he won’t need to bat in situations that don’t suit him. I don’t know much about Foxcroft, in fact I’d never heard of him when Lahore drafted him. From what I’ve read/been told, he’s another middle order batter that can bowl some fairly decent off spin. However he hasn’t played professionally for over 18 months, owing to visa issues. Lahore are clearly big fans of him, to me it does seem like a bit of a gamble, particularly in a competition where you’re only allowed six overseas players.
Samit Patel returns as a supplementary player, though I’m not sure he’ll see as much game time this season. In terms of emerging players, Zaman Khan should be most likely to play, if not him, then they’ve got spin options in Syed Faridoun and Maaz Khan.
Availability issues:
- Rashid Khan - I believe this is likely going to be their only availability issue throughout the season, unless one of the English players gets a surprise t20 call up, it’ll certainly a big miss though. If Afghanistan’s proposed tours go ahead and Rashid plays in both series, he’ll likely miss the majority of the tournament.
Possible XI:
It looks like a really good and balanced team on paper, obviously it’s dependant on the availability of Rashid, even without him, they still look like they’ve got the resources to compete. A high class domestic pace bowling line up and batting depth ensures that. It isn’t worth speculating on their team if Rashid isn’t available because they’d almost certainly try to sign a direct replacement.
Multan Sultans
It was certainly a tale of two halves for Multan last season, winning only one of five matches when games were held in Karachi. After the season had been halted and PSL resumed in the UAE, Multan managed to win 6 out of 7 matches, including both knockout matches as they went on to win the title. Often fielding what can only be described as a strange XI, with a long batting tail that featured Sohail Tanvir and yet it worked, massively helped by consistent performances from Mohammad Rizwan, Sohaib Maqsood & Shan Masood and random cameos from middle order players, particularly in their last few matches.
Without sounding harsh, I’m still not entirely sure how they managed to win the tournament with the team they had, it was certainly helped by other teams losing quality overseas performers for the second half of the tournament. Nevertheless they did and it was the first they’ve ever managed to win the PSL.
The retentions from Multan were largely expected but in order to get to that point they had to release a few fairly big name players. Shahid Afridi departed after announcing he wanted to finish his PSL career with Quetta and Multan agreed to it. James Vince also wasn’t retained, indicating that Multan see Rizwan and Shan Masood as their opening partnership. Finally a slot for Usman Qadir wasn’t deemed necessary and they decided to retain Imran Tahir instead, which could be seen as surprising, given the age difference and one is local vs overseas, however, there’s no doubting that Tahir is still a higher quality bowler currently.
Here’s the rest of the work they did for the upcoming season:
Rizwan, Maqsood and Dahani were extremely obvious retentions. The first two speak for themselves and Dahani had a brilliant debut tournament last season and was a wicket taking threat in all phases. Masood and Khushdil Shah aren’t the calibre of Rizwan/Maqsood but are probably worthwhile retentions in gold. Masood has been a solid top order player in PSL over the past three seasons, while Khushdl clearly has useful assets, that hasn't quite matched up with his output, Multan will definitely want more from him this season. The Imran Tahir retention is fair enough, even if I’m slightly surprised that they decided not to retain Qadir, any injury to Tahir and their spin department looks weak. Rilee Rossouw is probably the one retention I’m not particularly enthused by, especially in the platinum category. He doesn’t play that much cricket anymore and his performances lately haven't exactly indicated that he’s the sort of player that can get away with doing that. Even though he’s had some memorable PSL knocks, I’m not sure I would’ve retained him in either of the top two categories and it feels like a move based on franchise loyalty, rather than current ability.
Onto the draft, Multan made two exciting overseas signings as their first two picks in Tim David and Odean Smith. Two players that are likely to be a few years off their peak that have enjoyed breakthrough years in t20 cricket. Tim David seems likely to bat at 5, which is the position that best utilises his skillset in my opinion, rather than using him as a pure ‘finisher’ like some teams seem to do. Odean Smith is about as box office as it gets, capable of bowling 145+ and one of the best hitters around, not the most consistent and probably never will be but on his day, there can’t be many players with more potential upside than him.
Their silver picks weren’t flashy but look extremely smart and adds plenty of depth to the squad. Rumman Raes returns to the PSL after recovering from long-term injuries, giving them a left arm option and generally a good multi-phase bowler if he can re-discover his previous level. Asif Afridi and Anwar Ali probably won’t get a lot of game between them this season, though like I said, they add quality squad depth and both can add value to the side when required, even if they’re slightly unique players, particularly Anwar Ali. Rovman Powell is a great pick in silver and I’m surprised no franchises took a punt on him earlier, perhaps influenced by possible availability issues but he looks to be a player very suited to PSL. Lastly they picked up Imran Khan SR, who was excellent for them in the previous season and continued those performances into the NT20 cup, where he finished as the leading wicket taker.
Blessing Muzurabani also returns as they picked him up in the supplementary rounds, along with Ihsanullah, who seems to be highly thought of by Andy Flower, which is never a bad thing. Abbas Afridi is probably most likely to start as their emerging player; a fast bowler that can also bat a bit, he made his PSL debut last season for Karachi last season. Aamer Azmat is a talented player but it’s difficult to see a route into the XI for him, unless one of the incumbents fails drastically.
Availability issues:
- Odean Smith - Could be involved in the West Indies t20 series against England, which means he could miss the first 2–3 games.
- Rovman Powell - Same as above.
- Blessing Muzarabani - If Zimbabwe’ series against Afghanistan goes ahead, Muzarabani could miss a large chunk of the tournament.
Possible XI:
The major selection debate initially is likely to be who plays between Imran Khan and Rumman Raes. Imran Khan probably gives you more control and has more higher level t20 experience over the last 12–18 months so they’ll probably go with him to start. Overall, I like what Multan have done ahead of this season, they look like a better side than last season and have added good squad depth.
Peshawar Zalmi
Zalmi looked to have nailed it, heading into the draft, after managing to retain basically all of their key domestic players and high upside overseas players, which includes English duo Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood. As well as retaining Tom Kohler-Cadmore in the silver category, which looks like great value, based on his white ball performances lately. There will probably be slight availability issues for Livingstone and Saqib for initial matches but players of this quality are likely worth retaining, even if they’re only availbale 70–80% of matches. PSL should theoretically be one of Rutherford’s strongest tournaments, given his record against pace bowling and indeed he showed glimpses of his talent last season for Zalmi, where he scored 240 runs at a strike rate of almost 150.
In terms of domestic retentions, there was little surprise to see Haider Ali retained alongside senior players Wahab Riaz and Shoaib Malik. Haider is one of the best batting talents in Pakistan, he could end up opening, which wouldn’t be his best position but from a national team perspective a season of opening in the PSL wouldn’t do his development any harm. Number 3/4 depending on team set up would be his best position in my opinion. It’ll be interesting to see how Wahab Riaz utilises himself this season, he had typically been someone that was backload, in very recent tournaments he has been bowling a lot more in powerplay’s/with the new ball (CPL, T10 and Lanka Premier league), where as in the NT20 Cup he largely used himself during the middle overs. Zalmi’s pace bowling stocks don’t exactly look stellar, so he’ll likely be bowling a lot of the ‘tricky overs’ this season. I’m not sure where Malik will bat, he’s probably best through the middle order, seems to be favouring later entry points from what I’ve seen recently. I don’t think this would be too successful in PSL, he lacks power against raw pace, is a capable hitter against medium pace and spin.
The surprise retention/signing for Zalmi was Hussain Talat in gold category, it certainly left a few people scratching their heads. Personally I can see why they’ve done it, left handed middle order players aren’t all that common in Pakistan and Talat can also chip in with a few overs here and there, it seems to be a signing based on a shortage of that skillset amongst local players, rather than individual player quality.
Despite their strong retentions, you still felt like they had a lot to do during the draft, particularly from a domestic bowling point of view, with Wahab Riaz being the only domestic frontline bowler that they retained:
In a way, they managed to achieve what they set out to do, recuriting six domestic bowlers, five of them pace bowlers. However, I’m unconvinced they’ve managed to get the quality they needed. In truth, they might only use one of the pace bowlers they picked up and that would enforced (emerging player rule) the three they picked up in silver category (Irshad, Iqbal and Sameen Gul) might not play and they could opt to go with a batting heavy approach, using the likes of Livingstone and Talat as the fifth bowler quota. I’m not sure any of Irshad, Iqbal or Gul have worthwhile quality in order to justify playing them over any of their frontline batters.
While their domestic pace bowling additions look underwhelming, Usman Qadir is a good piece of recruitment, particularly in the gold category and gives them a local spin option, which they’ve lacked in recent seasons. Other than that, their bowling recruitment was largely underwhelming, they definitely look to be lacking specialists for crucial phases.
Having retained four overseas players (the most of any side) Zalmi had little work to do in this regard. For the solitary platinum pick they had, they opted to go with Hazratullah Zazai, who had a short-ish stint with the franchise last season and it was very successful; scoring 212 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 186. It’s the type of performances Zazai is capable when he is at is best, when slightly off it, he looks fairly agricultural to say the least. In the supplementary category they went for Ben Cutting, who will likely be a back up to Livingstone & Rutherford for any games they’ll directly miss. Cutting is an impressive pace hitter and gives a sixth bowling option, age-related drop offs in performance could be a concern at some point though.
As for emerging players, Zalmi have three; Mohammad Haris, Sirajuddin and Amir Khan. It was looking like Haris would have to play the entire tournament as wicket keeper, after Zalmi picked Kamran Akmal, he declined their offer suggesting he deserved a higher category, before later reversing his decision… Akmal at his peak in t20’s was a force but as someone that turns 40 next month, I’m not sure he’s in a position to demand certain categories at PSL level, especially after averaging 21 last season. Despite this, he’d probably still make my XI, he’s still capable of good days and on his good days he is a match winner. He should either open or bat at 3.
With Akmal now playing (as it stands) the emerging slot will likely go to Mohammad Amir Khan, who has been with the franchise previously, playing four matches in 2020, taking three wickets. He seems to be the frontrunner for the emerging slot.
Availability issues:
- Liam Livingstone - Likely to be in England t20 squad, will miss intial matches.
- Saqib Mahmood - Same as above.
- Hazratullah Zazai - Possible Afghanistan tours, if involved, would miss the majority of PSL.
- Sherfane Rutherford - Slim chance he could make the West Indies t20 squad to face England, given his omissions in recent series this seems unlikely.
Possible XI:
From a batting perspective, this team looks good, with plenty of boundary hitters and they’ve also decreased the average age from what it was last season. The bowling looks problematic and a bit one dimensional, Wahab and Saqib Mahmood will need to be at the top of their game for Zalmi to have big success this season.
Quetta Gladiators
Quetta had a lot of work to do between seasons, as they looked to re-build from what was a shocking season last time out. Quetta finished bottom last season, winning only two out of their ten matches. Despite having some ‘big name’ players at various stages throughout the tournament, they just couldn’t string together a run of performances. Although it’s worth mentioning that they were very unlucky with tosses, particularly in the Karachi leg, where they had to bat first in all five matches and 13 of the 14 games played in Karachi, were one by the chasing team. With that in mind, it’s difficult to judge this side too harshly but they certainly need to be much better this season.
I alluded to this earlier, in my opinion Quetta had already made a big mistake before the draft. Failing to agree a deal with Azam Khan is a decision they may live to regret, sure Azam isn’t a finished article by any means but he has a skillset that’s extremely rare amongst local batters and at the age of 23 you have to back that talent. From what I understand he was keen to keep wicket for whichever franchise he joined and given Quetta already had Sarfaraz, that wasn’t an option. Could there have been a compromise, 50% of matches each? It’s hard to know what discussions went on behind the scenes but if it boiled down to making a decision between one or the other, I think you have to back Azam Khan.
Regardless of that error in judgement, Quetta also did some good work before the auction, recruiting three new players, which was more than any other franchise. Those players were James Vince, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shahid Afridi. Vince seems to divide opinion as a t20 player, in my opinion he’s a steady player, in the sense that you know what you’re going to get from him. It’s rare that he’ll have an incredible season but he also won’t be below average very often, that sort of consistency/stability to a side that’s been one of the weaker teams in recent seasons. Iftikhar looks like a good addition and is someone that seems to have improved as a t20 players over the last year or so, particularly in regards to his power game. He also gives them an off spin option for match ups, which could come in extremely handy. Shahid Afridi’s desire to return to Quetta was well known and they’ve managed to pull it off, while he clearly he isn’t the force he once was, particularly with the bat, he remains a good leg spin option, whether or not he is good enough to play as a primary wrist spinner, I’m not so sure.
With those three new additions, plus Sarfaraz, it meant Quetta could only retain another four players (at most) and they opted to go with three:
Those three were fairly straight forward; Nawaz has been a staple for the franchise over a long period of time and based on his performances lately, I expect he’ll have a big role to play this season, especially with the bat. While their talented pace bowling duo of Naseem Shah and Mohammad Hasnain were also obvious retentions, hopefully the two of them can establish themselves within the side this season. It would be a big failure on Quetta’s behalf if they don’t become key players for the franchise. Naseem Shah in powerplay’s is certain something to watch out for, having impressed for Southern Punjab in the NT20 cup.
As for the draft, Quetta had plenty of overseas slots available, having only retained/signed James Vince as an overseas. In the top two categories they opted to go for Jason Roy and James Faulkner. Jason Roy was expected to be in demand, given the impact high pace has in PSL, though there’ll be doubts over his availability, he is currently recovering from an injury and it could be touch and go for the opening matches of the tournament. Even if he does return to full fitness beforehand, there’s a chance he could picked in England’s t20 squad for the series against West Indies, so he’s unlikely to be available for the initial matches regardless. As for Faulkner, he impressed last season for Lahore, taking 13 wickets in six matches, plus a few contributions with the bat, though he probably benefitted from bowling in the same phases as Shaheen Afridi, with batters possibly looking to take far more risks against a bowler like Faulkner than they usually would, due to the threat/reputation of Shaheen. I think it’s a decent bit of recruitment overall, maybe a category too high but it could’ve been a lot worse.
The remaining picks were a mixture from ones that seemed to be largely sentimental, to picking up some promising overseas players. It’ll be very interesting to see how Ben Puckett goes, who Quetta picked up in the silver category, a strong player of spin but not all that impressive against pace and he’ll be faced with bundles of that in the PSL. I expect he’ll still go okay if picked, there are certainly other global tournaments where he’d perform much better though.
Their final two overseas picks were Afghanistan duo Naveen-Ul-Haq and Noor Ahmad. Noor is a promising left arm wrist spinner and despite not yet turning 17 has already played in various franchise leagues across the world. Most recently the Lanka Premier league, where he took 8 wickets with an economy of just under 6.5 rpo. I think Naveen is a better signing than most will give credit for, he has demonstrated wicket taking threat in almost every competition he has played in. Sure he can be expensive and his bowling style isn’t the most attractive (high slower ball %) but for a 22 Y/O overseas pace bowler he is generally performing well. I think team dynamics also need to be considered, especially for Afghanistan, where he is playing in a team that bowls a high percentage of spin and it’s high quality spin, so it’s natural that he could be comparatively expensive compared to his teammates when playing for them.
It has to be said that their local picks in the silver category left a lot to be desired. Quetta picked up three domestic players in this category; Umar Akmal, Sohail Tanvir and Khurram Shahzad. The Akmal and Tanvir picks are based on Quetta hoping they can replicate performances these players produced when they were at their best, given their ages I’d suggest this is very unlikely and they’ve clearly gotten worse in recent years. While Khurram Shahzad is a decent enough talent, I believe Quetta thought they were picking him as an emerging player, only to realise he wasn’t eligible and had to be in the silver category, so that’s a significant error on their behalf.
As for their emerging players Quetta picked up Abdul Bangalzai and Ashar Qureshi. Bangalzai wasn’t a surprise pick at all, he is a local born player and I think many felt Quetta would go for him. Clearly a technically sound batter, though I doubt he’s ready for a high level t20 cricket, nevertheless I expect he’ll be Quetta’s first choice emerging player when available. I don’t know much about Ashar Qureshi, other than that he is a leg spinner, that can offer a bit of batting. He is a relatively unknown player but he’ll almost certainly play in the initial matches, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can offer.
Quetta could be faced with a lot of availability issues to start their season:
- Jason Roy - Could be injured, could be playing for England, all we know is that he’s unlikely to be available at the start of the tournament for Quetta.
- James Vince - Not guaranteed by any means but there’s a chance he could be called up to the England t20 squad to face West Indies.
- Naveen-Ul-Haq - If Aghanistan’s potential matches go ahead, Naveen would likely be involved.
- Noor Ahmad - Same as above, though he isn’t certain to make their squads, even though he should in my opinion.
- Abdul Bangalzai - In the Pakistan u19 WC squad, could miss the entire Karachi leg is Pakistan make it to the final.
Possible XI:
It isn’t easy to predict what a Quetta XI could like, given the questions they have over availability. This is most likely a combination of poor planning and a bit of bad luck on their part. I think if they can get a full strength XI close to something like I’ve shown above, they’ve certainly improved their side from last season. With plenty of bowling options, including two frontline spin options (three if Noor plays) with Iftikhar as a match up option. They’d also have the choice to play an extra batter if they wanted, sliding Duckett into the line up at 3 or 4 and everyone else drops down, however, I wouldn’t do this as it pushes a lot of players from their optimal positions.
That mostly concludes, though there is something else I should add:
As the screenshot shows, PSL squad sizes have increased, which will give franchises one last chance to correct any issues within their squad. Hopefully it’ll see some local players get picked up that arguably deserved an opportunity:
Akif Javed, Zahid Mahmood, Amad Butt, Muhammad Musa, Rizwan Hussain, Ali Imran, Nasir Nawaz, Tayyab Tahir, Safi Abdullah, Sahibzada Farhan and Agha Salman are just some of the names that consider themselves unlucky to miss out. Hopefully a few of these will be picked for the additional player slots.
Thanks for reading!
Stats: cricmetric
Special thanks to grassroots cricket for allowing me to use their squad graphics!
