Franchises announce their picks in Replacement Draft of PSL 5

The 2020 edition of the Pakistan Super League will be from February 20 and the final of the tournament will be played 22^nd March 2020. This year’s tournament will be played completely in Pakistan for the first time and the opening ceremony will take place at the National Stadium in Karachi.

In December 2019, the PSL had announced the list of players that were retained by each of the franchises. A total of 45 players were retained, while December 6 saw the players’ draft happening at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. A total of 425 foreign players from 22 countries had registered their names for the draft. Quetta Gladiators got the first pick being the defending champions, while Lahore Qalandars got the second draft pick.

There were players like Dale Steyn, Alex Hales, Chris Lynn, Moeen Ali, Rilee Rossouw, Jason Roy, Tom Banton, Ben Cutting, Tymal Mills, Rassie van der Dussen and others in the draft from the international roster and Islamabad United picked Steyn, Karachi went for Hales, Qalandar got the big-hitting Lynn and Gladiators strengthened their top order with the pick of Jason Roy.

Replacement draft of the PSL 2020 announced

However, as it is with professional athletes, they get injured or there are some reasons why some of the players cannot participate in the Pakistan Super League and therefore the PCB held a replacement draft where the franchises could pick players to replace some of their picks who had pulled out due to one reason or the other.

Karachi Kings picked England’s Liam Plunkett in place of injured Mitchell McClenaghan. Similarly, Dane Vilas came in for Lendl Simmons for Lahore Qalandars, while some teams had to pick replacements for their players who were on national duty, either for the full duration of the PSL or for a part of it.

📰 Picks in for the #HBLPSLV replacement draft.#TayyarHain pic.twitter.com/lRe0asBzvu

— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 8, 2020

Recently, Shahid Afridi, the player-mentor of the Multan Sultans jumped the gun on announcing the captain of the franchise. The owners of the team, Ali Khan Tareen and others were planning on revealing the captain on Friday, February 7, but the former Pakistani all-rounder made the announcement himself, naming Shan Masood as the leader for the franchise in the upcoming PSL 2020.

It is hoped that this new name will give them better fortunes, as in the two seasons, the Multan-based team has finished at fifth position on both occasions in the six-team competition.