PSL 2019: It’s all building up ahead of the players’ draft

With the players’ draft for the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) not too far away, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has released a list of players under categories like Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging. The franchise management is too holding the final discussion over the players’ combination. The 2019 edition of the PSL will be played between February 14 and March 17.

The hunt for players for the Platinum category is to become intense as New Zealand’s hard-hitting batsman Corey Anderson has also joined the fray for the 2019 edition of the PSL as a platinum player. The draft is scheduled tin Islamabad on November 20 while November 13 is the deadline for the franchises to finalise their retention.

According to a report in Geo TV, each team can go with 10 retentions and the combination can be within limits of a maximum of three players each in the Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories. The teams can also retain up to five Silver and two Emerging players. Apart from Anderson, some other hot players picked from the Platinum this year are AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, Mohammad Hafeez and Thisara Perera.

In the Diamond and Gold categories, the teams will be looking at players like Brendan Taylor, Tim Bresnan, Ben Dunk, Ben Cutting, Wayne Parnell, Qais Ahmad and others. Players also have the option to drop down from Platinum to Diamond, Diamond to Gold and Gold to Silver if they are not picked in their rounds of preference.

Qalandars eyeing de Villiers

Lahore Qalandars, for instance, have opening batsmen Fakhar Zaman and Chris Lynn in the Platinum players’ list. They earlier released New Zealander Brendon McCullum from the roster and traded Umar Akmal and Sunil Narine with Quetta Gladiators. They are likely to release Lynn and target de Villiers and Hafeez.

Peshawar Zalmi, on the other hand, have Wahab Riaz, Hassan Ali and Kamran Akmal as their Platinum players now and need one foreigner in the category.

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from Pakistan Super League, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.