PSL 2021 Draft: Everything there is to know about players draft on Jan 10
PSL 2021 draft: Everything there is to know about players draft on Jan 10
Preparations for the players’ draft of Pakistan Super League (PSL) season six are complete as the event will be held tomorrow at High Performance Centre in Lahore.
About 400 foreign players from 20 different cricket playing countries have registered themselves in the draft this year. The star-studded pool of players includes Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Rashid Khan, David Miller, Dale Steyn, Dinesh Chandimal and many more.
As per Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) rules announced in a press release today, each team have to pick a squad of minimum 16 players or a maximum squad of 18 players in the draft. The teams will be based as per the following combination – three platinum, three diamond, three gold, five silver, two emerging and two supplementary (optional).
The draft consists of 16 regular rounds with two supplementary rounds for teams to make discretionary picks.
The first three rounds are Platinum category followed by another three rounds in Diamond category. The teams must pick at least one local and one foreign player in each category.
Following that, three rounds of Gold category will happen so that teams can complete the first nine picks. It’s pertinent to mention that each team much have at least three foreign players in their first nine picks.
Meanwhile, all six franchises on Saturday announced the list of players they have retained and released ahead of the tournament’s 2021 edition.
After retentions, the two-times champion Islamabad United have one pick in each Platinum, Diamond and Gold category while three in Silver and two in Emerging categories. The 2020 PSL champions Karachi Kings, on the other hand, have no picks in Platinum category but two in Diamond. They have one pick in Gold, four in Silver and one in Emerging.
Lahore Qalandars will have one pick in Platinum while none in Diamond. In Gold, Silver and Emerging categories they’ll have one, four and two picks respectively.
Peshawar Zalmi, the PSL 2017 champions, will have the busiest day as the franchise only retained five of their players. They have one spot each in the platinum and gold categories while two in Diamond. In Silver and Emerging categories they have all spots empty.
2019 champions Quetta Gladiators have two picks each in Platinum and Emerging category while none in Diamond. They also have one pick in Gold and three in Silver.
Multan Sultans have one pick in Platinum category while none in Diamond and Gold. They like Zalmi have all spots in Silver and Emerging categories open.
Read: PSL 2021: List of players retained and released by franchises
During the draft, Islamabad United will have the first pick in the first round. The franchise has retained two platinum players, Alex Hales and Shadab Khan; leading them to pick one more player in the top category.
Multan Sultans have the second pick in the same round and Lahore Qalandars have the third, while Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators have fourth and fifth pick, respectively.
Defending champions Karachi Kings have the last pick in the first round, however, the franchise have already retained all three platinum players including Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Colin Ingram so the last pick is not going to affect them.
The pick order for each round varies but all teams must include five foreign and 11 local players in the 16-player squad; while the 18-player squad can include six foreign and 12 local players or five foreign and 13 local players.
In addition to that, each team also has one wildcard pick this year that allows them to pick a player from Silver category and above in any category between Gold and Platinum.
The HBL PSL 2021 Draft will be televised live on Geo Super at 4:30 pm (PST) on Sunday.
Check the list of players available in the pictures below:
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