Karachi Kings retain Babar Azam as PSL franchises release players’ list

LAHORE: The franchises of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) have announced the players who have been retained, traded and released ahead of the player’s draft for the next edition which will be held at the High-Performance Centre tomorrow.

Defending champions Karachi Kings have retained Babar Azam and Islamabad United have kept Shadab Khan as the two sides also completed a successful trade of Englishman Alex Hales and Colin Ingram of South Africa.

Babar was Player of PSL 2020, while Shadab was named captain of Team of the PSL 2020 and both will be the star attraction for the tournament being held in Karachi and Lahore from 20th February to 22nd March.

As per the event rules, five sides have consumed their allocation of retaining up to eight players except for Peshawar Zalmi, which have retained five players.

In the platinum category, last year’s losing finalists Lahore Qalandars have retained Mohammad Hafeez and Shaheen Shah Afridi, Multan Sultans have retained Shahid Afridi and Rilee Rossouw, Peshawar Zalmi have kept Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz and Quetta Gladiators have retained Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Other foreign players retained by the franchises include Ben Dunk, David Wiese (both Lahore Qalandars), Imran Tahir, James Vince (both Multan Sultans), Liam Livingstone (Peshawar Zalmi) and Ben Cutting (Quetta Gladiators).

In the only trade, Hales returns to Islamabad United after playing for Karachi Kings in the 2020 editions, while Colin Ingram is back to Karachi Kings after featuring for them in the 2018 and 2019 events.

Following this trade, Karachi will take Islamabad’s pick in the first round of Diamons categor, while Islamabad will make their lone Diamond pick in the second round.

🥁 Presenting the #HBLPSLDraft Retention List 🥁

Did all your favourites make the cut for #HBLPSL6?

More: https://t.co/eAP9cmFgJZ pic.twitter.com/k7qwxXsWqG

— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) January 9, 2021