Islamabad United draft Haider Ali; Zalmi pick Waqar Salamkheil
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Discarded hard-hitting international Haider Ali was on Monday drafted by Islamabad United while Peshawar Zalmi picked Afghanistan’s left-arm wrist-spinner Mohammad Waqar Salamkheil as several supplementary and replacement players were added to the six HBL PSL 9 squads in the replacement draft held over a conference call.
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 HBL PSL draft in December.
Haider Ali, a discarded international, was drafted into the Islamabad United squad with the batter all set to feature in his fifth HBL PSL season with Islamabad being his third franchise. Before this he had represdented Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi.
Pacer Khurram Shahzad will be partially available with the pacer Arshad Iqbal named as his replacement inthe silver category.
“Gus Atkinson is set to replace Noor Ahmed of Afghanistan, who is not available to Peshawar Zalmi due to international commitments. Meanwhile, they have reserved their pick for the replacement of partially available Naveen ul Haq,” the PCB said.
Lahore Qalandars reserved their picks for Rashid Khan, fully unavailable and Dan Lawrence, partially unavailable to the franchise.
Islamabad United, too, reserved their pick for Tom Curran, who will not be part of the side for this HBL 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 Gladiator’s Bismillah Khan will replace Wanindu Hasaranga after Sri Lanka’s Hasaranga will leave the squad during the tournament owing to his international commitments.
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 the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who featured for Peshawar Zalmi in the last HBL PSL season.
“Multan Sultans had the fifth pick in the third supplementary round and they went for the experienced West Indian wicketkeeper-batter Johnson Charles, who has represented Sultans and Quetta Gladiators in previous HBL PSL seasons.
Quetta Gladiators, with the last pick of the round three, drafted English batter Laurie Evans, who previously appeared in his solitary HBL PSL season for Multan Sultans in the 2019 edition.
The fourth round of the supplementary picks saw Sultans bagging the exciting 19-year-old Muhammad Shahzad, who was part of Pakistan U19 at the ICC Men’s U19 World Cup 2022.”
Quetta Gladiators reserved their pick in the fourth round. The fourth pick of the round saw Peshawar Zalmi drafting in left-arm wrist spinner, Sufiyan Muqeem, who was part of the same team in the last HBL PSL season. With the fifth pick in this round, Lahore Qalandars picked up Tayyab Abbas, a product of their player development program. Karachi Kings drafted 21-year-old Mohammad Rohid as part of their squad.