Replacement draft helps teams to combat players’ unavailability ahead of PSL 8:
Prospects that some foreign players may be unavailable to play in the upcoming edition of the Pakistan Super League because of international commitments, led the franchises to request the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to increase the squad size.
PCB announced last week that it has allowed franchises to include two more players in the supplementary category to overcome the unavailability issues. These two supplementary picks were announced alongside the replacement picks by franchises over a conference call earlier tonight.
PESHAWAR ZALMI:
Supplementary picks:
Peshawar Zalmi, who did not pick any player in the second supplementary round, during the main draft in December, citing the reason that they are eyeing a few youngsters and want to observe them for some time, named pacer Khurram Shahzad as their second supplementary player. Zalmi had the first pick for the third supplementary round and they roped in fiery batter Haris Sohail to strengthen their middle order. The yellow force again reserved their pick in the fourth supplementary round.
Replacement:
Rovman Powell will be replaced by English pacer Richard Gleeson as Zalmi name him as their partial replacement pick in the Platinum category. The Javed Afridi-owned franchise decided to reserve their replacement pick in the Diamond category in place of Mujeeb ur Rehman.
LAHORE QALANDARS:
Supplementary picks:
The defending champions, Lahore Qalandars, were second in the pick order and chose Ahsan Bhatti in the third supplementary round. Like Zalmi, the Lahore-based franchise reserved their pick in the fourth round.
Replacement:
Rashid Khan and Jordan Cox are likely to miss a few matches and so the think tank of the franchise named Sam Billings and Kusal Mendis as their replacement respectively. Apart from that, Harry Brook, who will miss the entire tournament due to national duties, will be replaced by Shane Dadswell.
ISLAMABAD UNITED:
Supplementary picks:
The most successful franchise of the PSL picked English bowler Tom Curran in the third supplementary round while they went for Zafar Gohar in the next supplementary round.
Replacement:
English players Tymal Mills and Gus Atkinson were picked by the franchise to replace Alex Hales and Rahmanullah Gurbaz respectively. To replace Fazalhaq Farooqi in the Diamond category and Moeen Ali in the supplementary category, the Uniteds reserved their picks.
KARACHI KINGS:
Supplementary picks:
Karachi Kings added Ben Cutting to their squad as their third supplementary pick while Musa Khan was roped in during the fourth supplementary round.
Replacement:
Tabraiz Shamsi, who was earlier roped in by Karachi Kings in the supplementary category and is likely to miss the tournament matches because of South Africa’s series against West Indies, will be replaced by Faisal Akram.
QUETTA GLADIATORS:
Supplementary picks:
The Gladiators went for Qais Ahmed as their third supplementary pick while the swashbuckling batter Saud Shakeel was named by the franchise as their fourth player of the supplementary round.
Replacements:
Quetta reserved their replacement pick in the platinum category, which was to replace Wanindu Hasaranga, who will leave the tournament from 3 March for Sri Lanka’s series against New Zealand. In the Diamond category, the purple force picked Dwaine Pretorius and Will Jacks in place of Odean Smith and Jason Roy. Nuwan Thusara was named as the partial replacement for Naveen ul Haq by Quetta in the silver category.
MULTAN SULTANS:
Supplementary picks:
Multan Sultans were the last in the pick order for the third supplementary round and they added Kieron Pollard in their squad. Ammad Butt, who played for Peshawar Zalmi in PSL 7, was named by the Sultans as their fourth supplementary pick.
Replacements:
David Miller, who like his South African fellow cricketers is likely to leave the tournament from 8th March onwards, will be replaced by Izharulhaq Naveed as picked by Multan in the Platinum category. For Akeal Hosein and Tim David in the gold category, the Multan-based franchise reserved their replacements while Adil Rashid was replaced by Wayne Parnell.
