The draft for the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League was held today at High Performance Centre in Lahore. 

The draft started with Islamabad United using their wildcard option to pick Hasan Ali from Diamond category in their Platinum pick. The ‘universe boss’ is picked by Quetta Gladiators, along with South African speedster Dale Steyn in supplementary category. Qalandars bolstered their bowling attack further by recruiting T20I player of the decade Rashid Khan. 

Someone’s pain is another one’s gain as Sultans took advantage of Qalandars’ decision to release Australian explosive hitter Chris Lynn by drafting him into the squad. Qalandars retained Samit Patel, while bringing in Zeeshan Ashraf from Multan Sultans. 

Kings focused on getting all-rounders in to their squad as they picked up experienced campaigner Mohammad Nabi and Dan Christian in the diamond category. Peshawar Zalmi, who only retained five players, made some really interesting picks, picking up Proteas middle-order batsman David Miller, Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rehman among highly-rated other picks.

Along with Lynn, Multan Sultans have added the in-form wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan. Sohaib Maqsood, who went un-picked in last year’s draft out has been roped in by Sultans to bolster their middle-order.
 
QUETTA GLADIATORS:

- Retained Players: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Ben Cutting, Naseem Shah, Azam Khan, Mohammad Hasnain, Anwar Ali, Zahid Mehmood.
 
- Platinum: Chris Gayle, Tom Banton.

- Diamond: -
 
- Gold: Usman Shinwari. 
 
- Silver: Cameroon Delport, Qais Ahmad, Abdul Nasir. 
 
- Emerging: Saim Ayub, Arish Ali Khan. 
 
- Supplementary: Dale Steyn, Usman Khan. 


KARACHI KINGS: 
 
- Retained Players: Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir, Imad Wasim, Sharjeel Khan, Colin Ingram, Amir Yamin, Waqas Maqsood, Arshad Iqbal.

- Platinum: -
 
- Diamond: Mohammad Nabi, Dan Christian. 
 
- Gold: Chadwick Walton. 
 
- Silver: Joe Clarke, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Ilyas, Zeeshan Malik - 
 
- Emerging: Qasim Akram. 
 
- Supplementary: Noor Ahmad. 

MULTAN SULTANS:  
 
- Retained Players: Rilee Rossouw, Shahid Afridi, James Vince, Sohail Tanvir, Imran Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir 
 
- Platinum: Chris Lynn. 
 
- Diamond: -
 
- Gold: - 
 
- Silver: Sohail Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohaibullah, Adam Lyth.
 
- Emerging: Shah Nawaz Dhani, Mohammad Umer.

- Supplementary: Imran Khan Sr, Carlos Braithwaite
 
ISLAMABAD UNITED:

- Retained Players: Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Asif Ali, Alex Hales, Hussain Talat, Musa Khan, Zafar Gohar, Colin Munro. 
 
- Platinum: Hasan Ali
 
- Diamond: Lewis Gregory. 
 
- Gold: Phil Salt
 
- Silver: Rohail Nazir, Reece Topley, Iftikhar Ahmed
 
- Emerging: Mohammad Wasim Jr, Ahmed Safi Abdullah. 

- Supplementary: Akif Javed, Chris Jordan.

PESHAWAR ZALMI:

- Retained Players: Wahab Riaz, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Liam Livingstone, Haider Ali. 
 
- Diamond: Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Sherfane Rutherford. 
 
- Gold: Amad Butt 

- Silver: Umaid Asif, Imam-ul-Haq, Saqib Mahmood, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Mohammad Irfan Sr.
 
- Emerging: Mohammad Imran, Ibrar Ahmed. 
 
- Supplementary: Ravi Bopara, Amir Khan 

 LAHORE QALANDARS:
 
- Retained Players: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shaheen Shah Afridi, David Wiese, Haris Rauf, Sohail Akhtar, Dilbar Hussain, Ben Dunk. 

- Platinum: Rashid Khan
 
- Diamond: 
 
- Gold: Samit Patel.
 
- Silver: Tom Abell, Zeeshan Ashraf, Salman Agha, Mohammad Faizan. 
 
- Emerging: Maaz Khan, Zaid Alam
 
- Supplementary: Joe Denly, Ahmad Danyal. 
 
With all the squads stacked up, the franchises are all set to kick-off the sixth season of the glamorous tournament. The PCB have chosen two venues to host the latest edition due to Covid-19 safety measures. However, the decision to either hold the event behind closed-doors or with some percentage of crowd is not yet made and any such decision will be made closer to the event. The schedule is already released which will see the defending champions Karachi Kings take on Quetta Gladiators on February 20. The month-long event will come to an end on March 22 in the city of Lahore.