In the eighth season of Pakistan Super League (PSL), fifteen English cricketers will compete, including some of the top players who have excelled not only in T20 internationals and leagues throughout the world but also in English local “T20 Blast” and “The Hundred” competitions.
Numerous of them have been featured frequently in past PSL iterations. Due to England’s Test team tour of New Zealand in February and their subsequent travel to Bangladesh for the ODI and T20 series in March, some of the major names who participated in the previous editions would not be able to play in PSL 8.
On February 13, the month-long competition, which is currently recognized as one of the largest T20 cricket festivals in the world, will begin (today). However, not all of those English players will participate throughout the entire tournament since some are filling in for their countrymen, and other players will miss the first few games owing to obligations to national teams.
Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Sam Billings, James Vince, Will Smeed, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Tymal Mills, and Liam Dawson are among the English players participating in this season of the PSL.
Additionally appearing in this episode are Jordon Cox, Richard Gleeson, Tom-Kohler Cadmore, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, and Adam Rossington.
While Curran, Cox, Gleeson, Atkinson, and Rossington are competing for the first time, players like Hales, Vince, Dawson, Mills, and Roy have frequently appeared in past iterations of the competition.
Five English players have been signed by Islamabad United, while three each are on the rosters of Lahore Qalandars and Quetta Gladiators. The Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings will include two English cricketers in their lineups. The only team participating in this year’s competition without an Englishman on their roster is Multan Sultans.
Surrey County Cricket Club (CCC) has four players, whereas Kent and Hampshire CCC each have two. This year’s PSL will also include one player from each of the following counties: Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Sussex, and Somerset.
Peshawar Zalmi
The Peshawar Zalmi lineup for this season includes two Englishmen. Tom Kohler-Cadmore has been retained by Zalmi in the Silver division. In the 2018 PSL, Yorkshire’s Cadmore also played for the Quetta Gladiators.
Richard Gleeson from Lancashire will also replace the original player and join Peshawar Zalmi.
Karachi Kings
Vince, the English-language team’s starting opener, was chosen for the Diamond division by Karachi Kings. The Hampshire captain will compete in the PSL for a fourth time after helping Southern Braves win the first edition of “The Hundred.” For the Kings in 2016, the Multan Sultans in 2019, and the Quetta Gladiators in 2022, Vince played.
Adam Rossington of Northamptonshire, the second English cricketer signed by Karachi Kings, will fill in for Vince.
Lahore Qalandars
For the PSL this year, the defending champion Lahore Qalandars has signed three English players, including Liam Dawson in the Gold division. One of the players who has appeared in past releases is Dawson. In 2018 and 2020, Dawson from Hampshire CCC represented Peshawar Zalmi, and in 2022, he did the same for Islamabad United.
Sam Billings (Kent) and Jordon Cox are two other English cricket players on the Qalandars’ roster (Kent). For the first few games, Afghan all-arounder Rashid Khan will be replaced by Billings, who played for Islamabad United from 2016 to 2018.
Quetta Gladiators
Exciting English starter Jason Roy has been retained by the Quetta Gladiators Gladiators in the Diamond category. Roy, who is known for his flamboyant batting style, participated in the 2018—2020—2022 tournaments for the Quetta Gladiators while competing in the 2017—2018 tournament for the Lahore Qalandars team.
Last year, Roy of Surrey CCC got his PSL campaign off to a fast start by scoring a century against Lahore Qalandars in the first game of the competition. Against a bowling attack that included players like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Rashid Khan, he hammered 116 in just 57 balls, striking 11 fours and 8 sixes.
Will Smeed has also been kept on by Quetta Gladiators in the Silver division. Smeed from Somerset, who participated in the PSL for the first time last season, was a last-minute replacement for opener Vince for the first few games, which proved to be a good opportunity for him.
Will Jacks of Surrey will bat for the Gladiators during a handful of their games? Jacks, who played for Islamabad United in the last PSL season, also traveled with England’s Test team to Pakistan last year, where he made his Test debut.
Islamabad United
Islamabad United will have five English cricketers in this season’s PSL, the highest of any team. Alex Hales, the brash England opener who was chosen in the Platinum category, is at the top of the list. His fifth game in the league will be this one.
Hales, a player from Nottinghamshire CCC, played for Karachi Kings in 2020 and for United in 2018, 2019, and 2021. He chose to take part in the league rather than England’s March tour of Bangladesh. In the previous tournament, the right-handed batter had a strike rate of 148, and 355 runs scored at an average of 44.38.
Additionally, Moeen Ali (Warwickshire), Tymal Mills (Sussex), Tom Curran (Surrey), and Gus Atkinson (England) will play for Islamabad United (Surrey).
Moeen participated in PSL for Multan Sultans in 2020.
Tymal Mills is participating in the T20 event for the fifth time. Before this, he played for Peshawar Zalmi in 2019, Karachi Kings in 2018, and Quetta Gladiators in 2017 and 2020.
Opening Ceremony
Before today’s tournament opener between the hosts and 2021 champions Multan Sultans and the reigning champion Lahore Qalandars, the PSL 2023 opening ceremony will take place in the Multan Cricket Stadium.
The competition, which will end on March 19 with the final being played in Lahore, will feature a total of 34 matches spread across 33 days.
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