LAHORE: In what could be termed a setback for the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) T20 tournament, four prominent foreign players on Monday withdrew from the ninth edition of the six-team competition starting next month.

According to the PCB, several supplementary and replacement players were added to the squads of PSL which begins on Feb 17, during the Replacement Draft that took place over a conference call on Monday.

Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard and England fast bowler Tom Curran expressed their non-availability for the forthcoming PSL season.

Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, meanwhile, confirmed his partial appearance in the league.

“Peshawar Zalmi, announcing their replacements, drafted Waqar Salamkheil in the silver category for Lungi Ngidi, who was not available for the whole season after being picked in the PSL Draft in December. Fast bowler Khurram Shahzad will be partially available, with pacer Arshad Iqbal named as his replacement in silver category. Gus Atkinson is set to replace Noor Ahmed, who is not available to Peshawar Zalmi due to international commitments.

“Meanwhile, they have rese­rved their pick for replacing partially available Naveen-ul-Haq,” the PCB in its press release issued on Monday said.

“Lahore Qalandars reserved their picks for Rashid Khan, fully unavailable and Dan Lawrence, partially unavailable to the franchise,” the press release added.

“Islamabad United, too, reserved their pick for Tom Curran, who will not be part of the side for this PSL edition.

“Karachi Kings have called in Zahid Mehmood as a partial replacement of Kieron Pollard while they have reserved their pick for Tim Seifert, who will be available after the conclusion of the New Zealand T20Is.

“Quetta Gladiators’ Bismillah Khan will replace Wanindu Hasaranga after he leaves the squad during the tournament owing to his international commitments,” it added.

“In the first and second pick of the third supplementary round, left-arm pacers Luke Wood and Obed McCoy were bagged by Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United, respectively.

“Karachi Kings had the third pick and they went for English middle-order batter Leus De Plooy meanwhile the fourth pick belonged to Lahore Qalandars who took on board Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

“Multan Sultans had the fifth pick in the third supplementary round and they went for West Indian wicketkeeper-batter Johnson Charles, who represen­ted Sultans and Quetta Gladiators in previous PSL seasons.

“Quetta Gladiators, with the last pick of the round three, drafted Englishman Laurie Evans, who previously appeared in his PSL season for Multan Sultans in the 2019 edition.

“The fourth round of the Supplementary picks saw Sultans bagging Mohammad Shahzad, who was part of Pakistan U-19 at the 2022 U-19 World Cup,” stated the release.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2024