Jake Fraser-McGurk roped in as direct signing by Rawalpindi for PSL 11

KARACHI: Australia's hard-hitting batter Jake Fraser-McGurk has been picked by the Rawalpindi franchise for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11, scheduled to run from March 26 to May 3.

Fraser-McGurk, who has represented Australia in eight T20Is, has been one of the most sought-after batters in the shortest format, especially in the franchise leagues, having featured in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), Major League Cricket (MLC) and the Big Bash League (BBL).

The 23-year-old has played 98 T20 matches and accumulated 1852 runs at a massive strike rate of 149.11 with the help of 11 half-centuries.

Consequently, Fraser-McGurk was slotted into the list of batters with the highest base price – Rs42 million – for the first-ever player auction for the marquee league, held at the Expo Centre in Lahore on Wednesday.

The right-handed batter, however, failed to attract a buyer in both the main and accelerated rounds and thus went unsold.

Meanwhile, the rebranded Rawalpindi franchise of the marquee league, which was acquired by new owners after a historic auction earlier this month, roped in Jake Fraser-McGurk as their direct signing.

Notably, the amount for which Rawalpindi signed the Australia international is yet to be unveiled.

For the unversed, the ownership of the franchise was relinquished following an independent valuation process of the six existing teams after the landmark 10th edition of the marquee league.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) initially announced to assume the control of the side but later decided to auction it, considering the overwhelming response the sale process of the two new teams – Sialkot Stallionz and Hyderabad Houston Kingsmen – received.

The cricket board had also constituted an independent panel to oversee the retentions and direct signings of the franchise, which later released all of their players and announced that they would go into the player auction with a full purse of USD 1.6 million.

But on the eve of the player auction, the Rawalpindi franchise announced Mohammad Rizwan, Zaman Khan, Yasir Khan and Sam Billings as retentions, but did not get to unveil their direct signing.