LAHORE: Ten changes were made by three franchises while Islamabad United and Karachi Kings retained their squads during a replacement player draft ceremony for next month’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) here at the NCA on Monday.

According to the details, Quetta Gladiators, last year’s runners-up, made four changes to their squad, while Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi made three each.

The Gladiators included England’s Moeen Ali in place of West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, New Zealand’s Nathan McCullum replaced England’s David Willey, Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera came in for West Indian Rovman Powell and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi vacated the spot for South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw.

Lahore Qalandars brought in England’s Jason Roy in place of West Indian Dwayne Bravo, replaced seasoned Australian pacer Shaun Tait with his compatriot Chris Green, and picked James Franklin of New Zealand in place of his compatriot Anton Devcich.

Meanwhile, the changes made to Peshawar Zalmi were: West Indian Marlon Samuels replaced England’s Alex Hales; West Indian Andre Fletcher replaced Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad and Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan came in for Bangladesh’s Shakib Al-Hasan.

A PCB press release on Monday stated, “A replacement draft for the HBL Pakistan Super League 2017 was held today at the NCA. The draft was organised to facilitate the inclusion of replacement foreign players after some of the players picked in the original draft dropped out of the competition due to injuries, unavailability, international commitments or bans.

“Team managements of four out of the five franchises were present at the draft where the picks were made after consent of all the participants. Karachi Kings have their original quota of foreign players intact. Hence the franchise management wasn’t present at the replacement draft. Kings have given their consent to the picks made by the other franchises.

“Islamabad United have decided to retain their West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell in their team though the player awaits clearance after his doping case hearing, a verdict on his hearing is expected to arrive within the next fortnight. If banned, Islamabad United will be given the option to immediately replace Russell,” the release added.

“Lahore Qalandars had to make three changes to their squad, as have Peshawar Zalmi, who have withheld one pick to be made within the next 24 hours.

“Quetta Gladiators have made four changes while Islamabad United and Karachi Kings have their original picks in place. The latter picks from PZ will only be activated and eligible to play once the number of foreign players in the team goes under the minimum quota allowed by the PSL, which is five. This would happen only after the Bangladesh players leave for their international team commitments,” it concluded.

The second edition of the PSL is scheduled to be staged from Feb 7 to March 5. While all the matches will be played in the UAE, the final is scheduled to be held in Lahore on March 5.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017