West Indies stars Dwayne Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite along with England’s ballistic openers Alex Hales have all joined the list of prominent players who have been ruled out of the second season of Pakistan’s Premier domestic T20 tournament, which kicks off on February 9.
Bangladesh’s veteran pair Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal and Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, will only be only partially available. The number of reasons for the players pulling out have varied from untimely injuries to some players not getting NOCS from their boards or due to International duties.
Each of the 5 PSL teams possesses a squad of 15 playerss. There are five supplement players in each squad who can chip in in case of a local player’s unavailability.A mini-draft session was conducted in Lahore on Monday, January 23 to help five teams to replenish their quota of overseas players.
Lahore Qalandars picked Jason Roy, the hard-hitting England opener and limited overs specialist, to fill the void left by the injury to Dwayne Bravo. Bravo endured a hamstring injury during a Big Bash League fixutre, while he was playing for the Melbourne Renegades. The Caribbean T20 veteran underwent surgery and a timely recovery with regards to the PSL seems unlikely.
The Qalandars, who finished rock-bottom in last year’s inaugural edition, have also called up James Franklin, the New Zealand allrounder, to take the place of his countryman Anton Devcich, whose knee injury forced him out. Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait was the third big name player ruled out of the Lahore team. Sydney Thunder’s star offspinner Chris Green replaces Tait.
Andre Russell is still a doubt due to his hamstring issues that escalated during the BBL. The Big Jamaican played a huge part in Islamabad’s heroic title win last season, but is unlikely to feature in the latest edition. England fast bowler Steven Finn has been kept on standby, in case Russell doesn’t make it at all.
With Carlos Brathwaite ruled out, last year’s runners up Quetta Gladiators riped in England allrounder Moeen Ali. Though, Moeen later announced that he wont be taking part in the tournament because of religious duties.
Peshawar Zalmi
In: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Marlon Samuels, Andre Fletcher
Out: Shakib Al Hasan, Alex Hales, Mohammad Shahzad
Quetta Gladiators
In: Nathan McCullum, Thisara Perera, Rilee Rossouw
Out: Carlos Brathwaite, David Willey, Rovman Powell, Mohammad Nabi
Lahore Qalandars
In: James Franklin, Chris Green, Jason Roy
Out: Anton Devcich, Shaun Tait, Dwayne Bravo
Source: crictale
