The player draft for the 2020 Pakistan Super League took place at National Cricket Academy, Lahore on 6 December 2019. The first round took place on 3 November 2019 to determine the pick order. As this season was scheduled to be held entirely in Pakistan, only the players who were comfortable with playing in Pakistan were included in this draft.
Background The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the team to have the first pick of the draft will be decided by a street cricket game called Pugam on 3 November 2019. It was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The rest of the draft was decided by a super computer.
Transfer
On 30 November 2019, it was announced that Usman Shinwari was transferred from Kings to Qalandars.
Retained players On 1 December 2019, PSL announced the retention players list with all six teams retaining a total of 45 players from previous season.
ClassIslamabad UnitedKarachi KingsLahore QalandarsMultan SultansPeshawar ZalmiQuetta GladiatorsPlatinum Shadab Khan Babar Azam Mohammad Amir Fakhar Zaman Mohammed Hafeez Mohammad Irfan Wahab Riaz Hasan Ali Kieron Pollard Sarfaraz Ahmed Mohammad NawazDiamond Faheem Ashraf Asif Ali Imad Wasim Iftikhar Ahmed David Wiese Shaheen Afridi Usman Shinwari Shahid Afridi Kamran Akmal Shane Watson Ahmed ShehzadGold Luke Ronchi Hussain Talat Aamer Yamin Sohail Akhtar Haris Rauf James Vince Junaid Khan Darren Sammy Imam-ul-Haq Umar Akmal Mohammad Hasnain Silver Ammad Butt Rizwan Hussain Muhammad Musa Usama Mir Salman Butt Shan Masood Ali Shafiq Umar Amin Naseem Shah Ahsan AliEmerging Umer Khan Mohammad Ilyas
Draft picks The draft took place on 6 December 2019 at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. A total of 425 foreign players from 22 countries were registered for the draft. Quetta Gladiators, the defending champions, got the first pick in the opening round of the 2020 PSL draft, followed by Lahore Qalandars. The order for the other four teams was: Multan Sultans (third), Islamabad United (fourth), Peshawar Zalmi (fifth) and Karachi Kings (last).
ClassIslamabad UnitedKarachi KingsLahore QalandarsMultan SultansPeshawar ZalmiQuetta GladiatorsPlatinum Dale Steyn Colin Ingram Alex Hales Chris Lynn Moeen Ali Rilee Rossouw Jason Roy Diamond Colin Munro Chris Jordan Zeeshan Ashraf Ravi Bopara Tom Banton Shoaib Malik Ben CuttingGold Rumman Raees Sharjeel Khan Cameron Delport Samit Patel Sohail Tanvir Liam Dawson Fawad AhmedSilver Phil Salt Zafar Gohar Mohammad Rizwan Umaid Asif Dan Lawrence Ali Khan Sekkuge Prasanna Ben Dunk Raja Farzan Jahid Ali Khushdil Shah Usman Qadir Fabian Allen Mohammad Mohsin Rahat Ali Dwaine Pretorius Adil Amin Sohail Khan Tymal Mills Abdul NasirEmerging Akif Javed Ahmed Safi Abdullah Arshad Iqbal Muhammad Faizan Maaz Khan Rohail Nazir Mohammad Amir Khan Aamir Ali Aarish Khan Azam KhanSupplementary Saif Badar Rassie van der Dussen Liam Plunkett Awais Zia Lendl Simmons Dilbar Hussain Imran Tahir Bilawal Bhatti Liam Livingstone Haider Ali Khan Keemo Paul Khurram Manzoor
Replacements Following players were replaced in PSL replacement draft. PlayerTeamReplaced withNotes Rassie van der Dussen (gold, supplementary) Islamabad United Dawid Malan (silver)Unavailable for full competition due to national duties Dwaine Pretorius (silver) Peshawar Zalmi Lewis Gregory (silver) Dan Lawrence (silver) Karachi Kings Chadwick Walton (silver) Kieron Pollard (platinum) Peshawar ZalmiCarlos Brathwaite (diamond) Fabian Allen (silver) Multan Sultans Wayne Madsen (silver)Unavailable partially due to national duties Keemo Paul (silver, supplementary) Quetta Gladiators Zahid Mahmood (silver) Liam Plunkett (gold, supplementary)Karachi Kings Mitchell McClenaghan (gold)Ruled out due to an injury Lendl Simmons (diamond, supplementary)Lahore Qalandars Dane Vilas (gold)Unavailable for personal reasons
A day before the tournament, Anwar Ali replaced Umar Akmal in Gladiators squad, who became unavailable after he was suspended by PCB with immediate effect under Article 4.7.1 of its anti-corruption code, disallowing him from taking part in any cricket-related activity under the board's purview, "pending the investigation being carried out by PCB's Anti-Corruption Unit". Akmal faced no sanction, only a reminder of his responsibilities, with a PCB statement saying that he had "offered his regrets" to the PCB for his action, and was in turn reprimanded and "reminded him of his responsibilities as a senior cricketer". A week into the tournament Lahore Qalandars' Haris Rauf suffered a foot injury and was replaced by Salman Irshad for 2-3 matches. Meanwhile, Mohammad Mohsin from Peshawar Zalmi also got injured and was unavailable for at least a week and was replaced by Yasir Shah.
Kieron Pollard who was expected to join the Peshawar Zalmi squad after the conclusion of West Indies tour of Sri Lanka, suffered a niggle in his right thigh and was replaced by Carlos Brathwaite for the whole season, who was earlier named as his temporary replacement. On 8 March in the match against Lahore Qalandars, Aamer Yamin suffered a hamstring injury while bowling and was replaced by Waqas Maqsood in the Kings squad for the remaining season.
Ahead of the play-offs, teams included new players in their squad as Faf du Plessis, Khurram Shehzad and Hardus Viljoen replaced Kieron Pollard, Mohammad Amir Khan and Liam Dawson in Peshawar Zalmi squad. In Multan Sultans squad Mahmudullah and Adam Lyth replaced Moeen Ali and Fabian Allen respectively. Lahore Qalandars replaced Chris Lynn, Salman Butt and Seekkuge Prasanna with Tamim Iqbal, Abid Ali and Agha Salman respectively. While, Karachi Kings replaced Chris Jordan and Ali Khan with Sherfane Rutherford and Waqas Maqsood.
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