Picture Credit: PCB/PSL
The Pakistan Super League’s off-season for the upcoming 2023 edition has been extremely entertaining. We saw one of the biggest trades in PSL where the current Pakistan captain Babar Azam was traded from the Karachi Kings to Peshawar Zalmi for a package surrounding veteran batter Shoaib Malik and youngster Haider Ali.
Talking about other teams, the Lahore Qalandars is the only team to retain two players in the Platinum bracket - Rashid Khan and Shaheen Afridi. Whereas the league stage leaders Multan Sultans, have retained Mohammad Rizwan as their Platinum player. Shadab Khan will continue as Islamabad United’s top bracket player, with Mohammad Nawaz being the only platinum category player for the Quetta Gladiators franchise.
The draft will see a total of 493 players, which will have 29 in the Platinum category and 81 in Diamond, from both full member and associate nations. The maximum number of overseas players are registered from England (140) while there are 60 from Sri Lanka, 43 from Afghanistan, 38 from West Indies, 28 from Bangladesh, 25 from South Africa, 14 from Australia, 11 from Zimbabwe (11) and nine from Ireland.
Complete list of retained players for PSL 2023 :
Islamabad United
- Shadab Khan (Platinum)
- Asif Ali (Brand Ambassador) (Gold)
- Mohammad Wasim Jnr (Diamond)
- Azam Khan (Gold)
- Faheem Ashraf (Gold)
- Hasan Ali (Gold)
- Colin Munro (Silver)
- Paul Stirling (Silver)
Karachi Kings
- Haider Ali (Platinum)
- Imad Wasim (Diamond)
- Mohammad Amir (Diamond)
- Shoaib Malik (Diamond)
- Aamir Yamin (Silver)
- Mir Hamza (Silver)
- Sharjeel Khan (Silver)
- Qasim Akram (Emerging)
Lahore Qalandars
- Rashid Khan (Platinum)
- Shaheen Shah Afridi (Platinum)
- Haris Rauf (Diamond)
- David Wiese (Diamond)
- Abdullah Shafique (Gold)
- Harry Brook (Gold)
- Kamran Ghulam (Silver)
- Zaman Khan (Emerging)
Multan Sultans
- Mohammad Rizwan (Platinum)
- Khushdil Shah (Diamond)
- Rilee Rossouw (Diamond)
- Shan Masood (Diamond)
- Shahnawaz Dahani (Brand Ambassador) (Gold)
- Tim David (Gold)
- Abbas Afridi (Emerging)
- Ihsanullah (Emerging)
Peshawar Zalmi
- Babar Azam (Platinum)
- Sherfane Rutherford (Diamond)
- Wahab Riaz (Diamond)
- Mohammad Haris (Gold)
- Aamir Jamal (Brand Ambassador) (Silver)
- Salman Irshad (Silver)
- Tom-Kohler Cadmore (Silver)
Quetta Gladiators
- Mohammad Nawaz (Platinum)
- Iftikhar Ahmed (Diamond)
- Jason Roy (Diamond)
- Mohammad Hasnain (Gold)
- Sarfaraz Ahmed (Gold)
- Naveen ul Haq (Silver)
- Umar Akmal (Mentor) (Silver)
- Will Smeed (Silver)