HBL PSL-9: Here's all you need to know about squads of six teams

Ramzan of 2024 is going to be more enthusiastic, as the Pakistan Super League’s concluding matches will be played in the holy month after Iftar.

The ninth edition of HBL PSL is set to kick-start on February 17 and will be concluded on March 18. 

Six teams, including Karachi Kings, Multan Sultans, Peshawar Zalmi, Lahore Qalandar, Quetta Gladiators, and Islamabad United will spell a cast of their cricketing skills in stadiums of Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. 

Shaheen Shah Afridi-led Lahore Qalandars, which emerged as victorious in the last two editions will welcome African right-handed batter Van Der Dussen whose entry could devote more power to the batting line of the team, which is already balanced as the world-class batter Fakhar Zaman, Tahir Mirza, Abdullah Shafique, Sikandar Raza, David Wiese are part of this slot. 

The team has Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Rashid Khan joining the team as experienced bowlers, while Faridun Ahmed and Jahandad have been inducted into the team as emerging bowlers. 

Multan Sultan, led by wicket-keeper batter Muhammad Rizwan, also filled the batting slot powerful players. The franchise picked Muhammad Rizwan and Iftikhar from the platinum category, Khushdil Shah and Dawid Malan from the diamond, Reeza Hendricks from gold, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan from the silver category while Yasir Khan, Aftab Ibrahim, Johnson Charles and Muhammad Shehzad from emerging and supplementary categories.

In the bowling slot Rizwan has David Willey, Usama Mir, Khushdil Shah, Abbas Afridi, Ihsanullah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Muhammad Ali, Faisal Akram, Charis and Jordan.

After losing the final for two consecutive years, Multan Sultans are determined to win this season. The Multan team has performed very well under the leadership of Muhammad Rizwan.

Islamabad United did not make a mistake in picking the player, team’s squad is full of smart performers including Shadab Khan, Naseem Shah, Jordan Cox, Imad Wasim, Azam Khan, Tymal Mills, Alex Hales, Faheem Asharaf, Colin Munro, Matthew Forde, Salman Ali Agha, Qasim Akram, Hunain Shah, Ubaid Shah, Rumman Raees, Tom Curran, and Shumail Hussain. 

However, this franchise also picked the players carefully but Shadab khan’s captaincy seems questionable. 

Meanwhile, Peshawar Zalmi will land on the field under Babar Azam’s captaincy who served four years as skipper of the national cricket teams, but all eyes will be on Saim Ayub whose prevailed last edition with his magic. 

Babar Azam, Roviman Powell, Noor Ahmed, Saim Ayub, Asif Ali, Tim Kohler, Naveen-ul-Haq, Aamer Jamal, Muhammad Haris, Dan Mousley, Khurrum Shehzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Haseeb Ullah, Muhammad Zeeshan, Lungi Ngidi, and Mehran Mumtaz are part of Peshawar Zalmi’s squad. 

Command of Karachi King has been handed over to Shan Masood who has been serving as a captain of the national cricket team. However, the King’s franchise changed its trainer. In the ninth addition, Phil Simms of West Indies was deployed as coach of the team. 

In King’s Shan Masood, James Vince, Tim Seifert, Shoaib Malik, Muhammad Nawaz, and Irfan Minhas will share the burden of batting, while Mir Hamza, Anwar Ali, Amir Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, and all-rounder Irfan Minhas will spell the cast of bowling. 

Moreover, Quetta Gladiators picked an inexperienced coach  this season, Shane Watson who is himself an outstanding Australian all-rounder will begin showing his coaching skills for the first time from this PSL

Rilee Russouw, Sherfane Rutherford and Jason Roy are likely to appear as aggressive batsmen from Quetta while Umair bin Yousaf, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Wanindu Hasaranga will be the main batsmen in the middle order.     

A good addition to the bowling is Mohammad Amir while Wasim Jr. and if fit, Mohammad Hasnain will be the fast bowlers, the spin bowling responsibility will be on Abrar Ahmed and Hasaranga. Khawaja will be beneficial in the emerging category.