KARACHI-Total 36 foreign players have been picked up in the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2023 draft and these players are from 10 T20I playing countries.
The 20 T20I playing countries include Afghanistan (five), Australia (three), England (10), Ireland (two), Namibia (one), New Zealand (four), South Africa (four), Sri Lanka (two), West Indies (four) and Zimbabwe (one). Six franchises of PSL finalised their squads during the eighth edition of the PSL draft that were held here on Thursday. The PSL 8 is going to be played in four different cities from February 9 to March 19.
Sri Lanka’s 2022 Asia Cup winning duo of Wanindu Hasaranga and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, England and Australia’s ICC T20 Men’s World Cup winners Adil Rashid and Matthew Wade, respectively, New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham and Tabraiz Shamsi of South Africa will make their PSL debuts in the eighth edition of the tournament, which will be held across four cities from 13 February to 19 March 2023.
The draft also saw four teenagers, who excelled at the Pakistan Junior League, picked by four different franchises. Mardan Warriors’ Aimal Khan was selected by Quetta Gladiators, Arafat Minhas of Gwadar Sharks was picked by Multan Sultans, Mardan Warriors’ Haseebullah was snapped up by Peshawar Zalmi and Shawaiz Irfan of Bahawalpur Royals was selected by Lahore Qalandars.
Leading T20 cricketers from around the globe had registered themselves for the HBL PSL Player Draft 2023. Out of 493, 29 were placed in Platinum category and 81 in Diamond category. From both full member and associate nations had made themselves available for the players’ draft. The maximum number of 140 foreign players that registered themselves for the PSL 2023 players’ draft were from England, 60 from Sri Lanka, 43 from Afghanistan 38 from West Indies, 28 from Bangladesh, 25 from South Africa, 14 from Australia, 11 from Zimbabwe and nine from Ireland.