PSL 2019: All you need to know

Pakistan Super League, known as HBL PSL primarily because of sponsorship by HBL, is set to go in its fourth season. The tournament is slated to begin from 14 February 2019 till 17 March 2019, with a total of 34 matches.

Foundation

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) established PSL in September 2015 with an aim to launch the league in February 2016. In its first season, that is in 2016, PSL consisted of five teams based on the names of five famous cities of Pakistan.

However, in a bid to expand the league, PCB after a much of hush-hush added a sixth team named Multan Sultans in the year 2017 (second season). But, PCB terminated Multan Sultans' rights (after two seasons - 2017 and 2018) in November 2018 as the then owners (Schön Properties) failed to suffice the financial obligations.

And ever since the termination, PCB decided to refer it as "The Sixth Team" until the time they sell its rights. Ali Tareen, son of a former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangeer Tareen, won the rights for "The Sixth Team" and decided to retain the name of "Multan Sultans" upon the suggestions of the fans.

Where to watch details

Pakistan: Geo Super

India: DSport

UAE: Yupp TV

Srilanka: Dialog TV

UK: Sky Sports Channel 792 (Prime TV) / Hum TV

USA/Canada: Willow TV

West Indies: Flow TV

Bangladesh: Gazi TV

South Africa: Supersport

North Africa: Yupp TV

Australia: Channel 44

Kenya: Star Times

Afghanistan: Moby

The Middle East and North Africa: OSN Sports

Worldwide online streaming: PSL will be streamed live on Cricketgateway.pk (Pakistan viewers) / Cricketgateway (International viewers).

Qualification Criteria

Pakistan Super League 2019 will follow the same qualification criteria as of BPL and IPL. All the six teams will play against all the other teams twice in the league. Hence, each team will play a total of ten games. The top four teams will fight it out in the playoffs to decide the winner of the league.

The playoffs for PSL 4 will kick-off from 12 March 2019. To start the playoffs, the third-placed team and the fourth-placed team will contest in Eliminator 1. The winner of the Eliminator 1 will advance to Eliminator 2 whereas the loser will have to end his journey. After Eliminator 1, the top two ranked team will lock horns against each in Qualifier.

The winning team will directly move to the finals. Meanwhile, the losing team will have one more chance to make it to the finals. Post that, the winner of Eliminator 1 and the loser of Qualifier will contest in Eliminator 2 and the winner will meet the winner of Qualifier in the finals on 17 March 2019 in Karachi.

PSL 2019 Squads

For the fourth edition of the league, each franchise retained a total of ten players during the retention and trade window which begin on 29 September 2018. Post the retentions and trades all the teams completed their squad.

Each franchise acquired players from six categories: Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Emerging, and Supplementary. All the teams picked 3, 3, 3, 5, 2, and four players from Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Emerging, and Supplementary categories respectively.

Islamabad United (Captain - Luke Ronchi)

Platinum – Shadab Khan, Luke Ronchi, and Faheem Ashraf.

Diamond – Mohammad Sami, Asif Ali, and Ian Bell.

Gold – Rumman Raees, Samit Patel, and Philip Salt.

Silver – Hussain Talat, Sahibzada Farhan, Zafar Gohar, Waqas Maqsood, and Cameron Delport.

Emerging – Musa Khan and Nasir Nawaz.

Supplementary – Wayne Parnell, Zahir Khan, Amad Butt, and Rizwan Hussain.

Karachi Kings (Captain - Imad Wasim)

Platinum – Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, and Colin Munro.

Diamond – Usman Khan Shinwari, Colin Ingram, and Imad Wasim.

Gold – Mohammad Rizwan, Ravi Bopara, and Sikandar Raza.

Silver – Awais Zia, Aaron Summers, Usama Mir, Sohail Khan, and Iftikhar Ahmad.

Emerging – Ali Imran and Abrar Ahmed.

Supplementary – Aamer Yamin, Ben Dunk, Liam Livingstone, and Jaahid Ali.

Lahore Qalandars (Captain - Mohammad Hafeez)

Platinum – AB de Villiers, Fakhar Zaman, and Mohammad Hafeez.

Diamond – Yasir Shah, Carlos Brathwaite, and Corey Anderson.

Gold – Anton Devcich, Rahat Ali, and Sandeep Lamichhane.

Silver – Shaheen Afridi, Hassan Khan, Agha Salman, Sohail Akhtar, and Haris Sohail.

Emerging – Mohammad Imran and Umair Maqsood.

Supplementary – Brendon Taylor, Gauhar Ali, Aizaz Cheema, and Harris Rauf.

Multan Sultans (Captain - Shoaib Malik)

Platinum – Steve Smith (injured & ruled out), Shoaib Malik, and Shahid Afridi.

Diamond – Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, and Joe Denly.

Gold – Shan Masood, Qais Ahmed, and Nicholas Pooran.

Silver – Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Umar Siddiq, Laurie Evans, and Nauman Ali.

Emerging – Mohammad Junaid and Mohammad Ilyas.

Supplementary – Dan Christian, Tom Moores, Ali Shafiq, and Shakeel Ansar.

Peshawar Zalmi (Captain - Darren Sammy)

Platinum – Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, and Keiron Pollard.

Diamond – Darren Sammy, Kamran Akmal, and Misbah ul Haq.

Gold – Liam Dawson, Dawid Malan, and Umer Amin.

Silver – Umaid Asif, Khalid Usman, Wayne Madsen, Sohaib Maqsood, and Jamal Anwar.

Emerging – Sameen Gul and Nabi Gul.

Supplementary – Waqar Salamkheil, Chris Jordan, Ibtisam Sheikh, and Samiullah.

Quetta Galdiators (Sarfraz Ahmed)

Platinum – Sarfraz Ahmed, Sunil Narine, and Dwayne Bravo.

Diamond – Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, and Mohammad Nawaz.

Gold – Rilee Rossouw, Umar Akmal, and Fawad Ahmed.

Silver – Anwar Ali, Saud Shakil, Mohammad Asghar, Danish Aziz, and Ahsan Ali.

Emerging – Ghulam Mudassar and Nasim Shah.

Supplementary – Harry Gurney, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Azam Khan, and Jalat Khan.

Match Fixtures

PSL 4 will have its matches at five venues: Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah, National Stadium in Karachi, and Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore with the final slated to take place at National Stadium in Karachi. With the league set to start in UAE, the playoffs will take place in Pakistan (Lahore and Karachi).

Note: The First match of the day will be played at GMT 2:00 PM and the second match of the day will be played at GMT 6:00 PM. And, if there is the only game on a particular day, it will be played at GMT 6:00 PM.

14th February Thursday Islamabad United vs Lahore Qalandars Dubai

15th February Friday Multan Sultans vs Karachi Kings Dubai

15th February Friday Peshawar Zalmi vs Quetta Gladiators Dubai

16th February Saturday Islamabad United vs Multan Sultans Dubai

16th February Saturday Lahore Qalandars vs Karachi Kings Dubai

17th February Sunday Islamabad United vs Quetta Gladiators Dubai

17th February Sunday Peshawar Zalmi vs Lahore Qalandars Dubai

20th February Wednesday Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans Sharjah

21st February Thursday Peshawar Zalmi vs Karachi Kings Sharjah

22nd February Friday Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars Sharjah

22nd February Friday Islamabad United vs Peshawar Zalmi Sharjah

23rd February Saturday Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars Sharjah

23rd February Saturday Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings Sharjah

24th February Sunday Peshawar Zalmi vs Multan Sultans Sharjah

24th February Sunday Quetta Gladiators vs Karachi Kings Sharjah

26th February Tuesday Multan Sultans vs Islamabad United Dubai

27th February Wednesday Lahore Qalandars vs Quetta Gladiators Dubai

27th February Wednesday Karachi Kings vs Islamabad United Dubai

28th February Thursday Multan Sultans vs Peshawar Zalmi Dubai

28th February Thursday Karachi Kings vs Lahore Qalandars Dubai

1st March Friday Peshawar Zalmi vs Islamabad United Dubai

1st March Friday Multan Sultans vs Quetta Gladiators Dubai

4th March Monday Quetta Gladiators vs Peshawar Zalmi Abu Dhabi

4th March Monday Karachi Kings vs Multan Sultans Abu Dhabi

5th March Tuesday Lahore Qalandars vs Peshawar Zalmi Abu Dhabi

5th March Tuesday Quetta Gladiators vs Islamabad United Abu Dhabi

7th March Thursday Karachi Kings vs Peshawar Zalmi Karachi

9th March Saturday Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United Lahore

10th March Sunday Karachi Kings vs Quetta Gladiators Karachi

10th March Sunday Lahore Qalandars vs Multan Sultans Lahore

12th March Tuesday Eliminator 1 (Third-ranked team vs Fourth-ranked team) Lahore

13th March Wednesday Qualifier (First-ranked team vs Second-ranked team) Karachi

15th March Friday Eliminator 2 (Winner of Eliminator 1 vs Loser of Qualifier) Karachi

17th March Sunday Final (Winner of Qualifier vs Winner of Eliminator 2) Karachi

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