PESHAWAR: Drafting of Pakistan Super League (PSL 7) has been completed and franchise owners have picked their favorite players. Umar Akmal has returned to the league while several big names including Ben Dunk, Chris Gayle and Ahmed Shehzad couldn’t make place in any team during PSL-7 draft.
For PSL-7, Lahore Qalandars, Karachi Kings, Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi retained eight players while Quetta Gladiators and defending champions Multan Sultans retained seven players each. The drafting ceremony was held at the National High Performance Center in Lahore.
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The PCB Chairman Rameez Raja also participated in the PSL-7 draft ceremony where the franchise owners selected 18 players in six different categories. The PSL-7 will start from 27th January and will continue till February 27 in which a total of 34 matches will be played.
Social media users are commenting on the drafting process of PSL-7. Australian batsman Dunk wrote in a tweet from Quetta Gladiators a few days ago about the impatient wait for PSL Seven: “Can’t wait for the start!” however, he wasn’t picked by any franchise during the drafting process, leaving his fans disappointed.
Ben Dunk
A user named Abdullah Wahab Khan wrote, “Ben Dunk turned down Australian domestic offers only for PSL but he was not included in the draft of PSL Seven.” Abdullah added: “It is difficult to believe that he was not included in the PSL-7. Dunk was one of the foreign players who stayed in Pakistan when other players left during the Coronavirus pandemic. The Twitter users also disappointed when no team picked Chris Gayle. The Twitter users wrote that when New Zealand refused to visit, the universal boss had raised his voice for Pakistan.
The Twitter uses also expressed disappointment that no one has picked Ahmed Shehzad, Sahibzada Farhan, Junaid Khan, Zahid Mahmood, Imad Butt, Arsh Ali Khan, Nasir Nawaz, Ali Imran, Umar Khan and Ibrar Ahmed for PSL-7.
Kamran Akmal
Besides Dunk, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, who represented Peshawar Zalmi, has declined to play, after he was demoting to silver category. Akmal has been considered as the most important player of Peshawar Zalmi but this time first his category was changed to from Diamond to Gold. However, in the end the Zalmi included him in the silver category due to which he declined to play. Kamran expressed his feelings on Twitter after being taken in the silver category by Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL draft, saying, “The journey up to the last six seasons has been wonderful.
Foreign players
Majority of cricketers participating in the Pakistan Super League this time are the same as the fans have been watching before. Among the foreign cricketers, Rashid Khan, David Wiese and Phil Salt are part of Lahore Qalandars.
England World Cup winners Jason Roy and James Vince are among the Quetta Gladiators. Alex Hales, Colin Monroe and Paul Sterling are notable in the Islamabad United squad. The Karachi Kings have relied on Joe Clarke, Chris Jordan, Muhammad Nabi and Lewis Gregorywhile South African snipers Imran Tahir, Tim David and Odean Smith are part of the Multan Sultans. Peshawar Zalmai’s squad includes Liam Livingstone and Afghanistan’s offensive batsman Hazratullah Zazai.