The PSL Season 9 drafts are lined up for December 14 in Lahore, and three players successfully moved down from their PSL registered categories after requests from their franchises.
Mir Hamza from Karachi Kings, Rumman Raees from Islamabad United, and Mirza Tahir Baig have successfully shifted to the silver category after being in the Gold category initially, as per the list released by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). They made these changes following requests from their respective franchises.
SEE Renewed PSL Categories for Local Pakistan Players Revealed
In the PCB’s list, several players made shifts in their categories – upgrades and downgrades were quite common.
Naseem Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed from Quetta Gladiators moved up from diamond to platinum.
Sarfaraz Ahmed jumped from gold to diamond, and Mohammad Haris from Peshawar Zalmi also climbed to the diamond category from gold. Salman Irshad, a pace bowler, moved to gold from silver.
Multan Sultans’ Abbas Afridi and Ihsanullah, who played as emerging picks last year, were promoted to the gold category.
Azam Khan and Faheem Ashraf from Islamabad United upgraded from gold to the diamond category.
Players like Zeeshan Zamir moved from emerging to silver, and Mubasir Khan upgraded from emerging to gold.
Transfers also included downgrades for some players. Changes involved Mohammad Nawaz (Quetta, Platinum to Diamond), Mohammad Hasnain (Quetta, Diamond to Gold), Haider Ali (Karachi, Platinum to Gold), and Asif Ali (Islamabad, Platinum to Diamond). Players with international representation for Pakistan can’t be relegated below the gold category.
Several top foreign players like England’s Dawid Malan and James Vince, Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai, South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen, and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan have confirmed their participation in the PSL 9 draft.
The PCB has already revealed the pick order for the Player Draft of PSL 9, with Quetta Gladiators leading the first pick, followed by Karachi Kings, Islamabad United, Peshawar Zalmi, Multan Sultans, and Lahore Qalandars closing the first round with the sixth pick.