The PSL moved into the IPL window this year, paradoxically, to improve the quality and availability of overseas players they would be able to sign. In that way, the calculated risk they took seems to have paid off and the roster for the tenth edition of the PSL includes the widest selection 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 signed up by the PSL at the draft this year held at the sprawling Hazuri Bagh at Lahore Fort. While the ceremony itself was a choppy, protracted affair that lasted a full seven hours from start to finish, the clunky packaging shouldn’t detract from what could be a very decent product after all.
For the first time, partial player availability, so often an obstacle during previous editions, was not an issue. The only other cricket during the time when the PSL will be played – between the beginning of April and the end of May – is the IPL 2025. The IPL auction has ended and all players remaining are definitely available , which in practice means that all players in the draft had communicated their complete willingness to participate fully in the PSL.
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 domestic 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 Chapman were all selected in the highest category, with all first-time PSL entrants. They were filled in the supplemental pick with Williamson and Kyle Jamieson, also rookies.
Over the years, overseas power-hitting the PSL has enjoyed, 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 can be partly explained by the availability of players who would otherwise not be options for the PSL, but perhaps also suggests 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 after being a one-franchise player until now and winning three titles. If there was any general indication that his star was waning, Quetta Gladiators clearly thought otherwise; they used their wildcard on him to select him in the Platinum category instead of the Silver he had been awarded.
There was also movement out of the Gladiators. 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, the Sultans’ fastest bowler until 2023, was not selected after an independent review found that the PCB’s mishandling of an elbow injury had done him significant harm. Sultans owner Ali Tareen said last week that the medical consensus was that he would never reach those speeds again.
Meanwhile, a division of a family occurred. Last year, Naseem Shah and both his younger brothers, Hunain and Ubaid, played for United; Hunain continued to hit the winning runs. This time the Sultans moved for the youngest, with Ubaid leaving the defending champions to join the 2021 winners.
Last year, the PCB told Pakinomist to co-exist with the IPL instead of competing with it. The PSL draft this time around could have wanted organization and production quality, but provided a small glimpse of what it could look like when April rolls around.
