The 2026 Pakistan Super League (branded as HBL PSL 11) was the eleventh edition of the Pakistan Super League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). This season marked the league's expansion from six to eight franchises, with Hyderabad Kingsmen and Rawalpindiz joining as new teams. It was played from 26 March to 3 May 2026, with 44 matches held in Karachi and Lahore.
Peshawar Zalmi won the tournament, defeating debutant Hyderabad Kingsmen by five wickets in the final to win their second PSL title.
Background After the conclusion of the tenth season in 2025, the initial ten-year franchise agreements for the six original teams expired. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) engaged Ernst & Young to conduct a valuation of the league's assets to set new terms for the next decade (2026–2035). In October 2025, HBL Pakistan renewed its title sponsorship for PSL for the next two years.
In November 2025, five of the then-existing six franchises successfully renewed their contracts under the new financial model except Multan Sultans. As part of the PCB's plan to expand the league from six to eight teams, an auction for two new franchises was held on 8 January 2026. Six cities were shortlisted for consideration: Faisalabad, Gilgit, Hyderabad, Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi and Sialkot. Following the auction, Hyderabad Kingsmen and Sialkot were selected as the seventh and eighth teams, with ownership rights acquired by FKS Group and OZ Developers respectively.
Ali Tareen, previous owner of Multan Sultans franchise, announced that he would not renew his agreement with the PCB, and cited financial losses and disagreements regarding the league's management. Thus, PCB decided to resell the franchise through an auction on 9 February 2026, where Walee Technologies acquired it and rebranded the identity to Rawalpindiz after relocating. Later, Sialkot owners sold the franchise to CD Ventures, who rebranded and brought back the Multan Sultans.
Trophy The trophy for the season was named "Infinity". Designed by Hanif Jewellers, it was handcrafted by 18 artisans. It featured a circular base with eight emerald-cut jewels representing eight teams. It had two golden curved arms rising to hold a crescent and a star along with hundreds of small crystals. It was revealed on 11 March at National Bank Stadium, Karachi, and toured across the country.
Prize money The champions received , while the runner-up team received . Moreover, a reward was awarded to the "best franchise contributing towards cricket development".
Teams and squads
The player auction for the eleventh season was held on 11 February 2026 in Lahore, Pakistan. It was the first time in PSL history that players were selected through an auction system, replacing the draft method that had been used since the league began in 2016. Team purse was capped at and was allowed to be extended to to allow direct signing of one foreign player who had not featured in a previous season. Franchises were allowed to retain up to four players, one in each category before the auction; new franchises were allowed to sign four players to match the retentions of the other six franchises. 888 players, including local and foreign, registered for the auction at 4 different base prices.
Rawalpindiz signed Pakistani pacer Naseem Shah for , making him the most expensive player in the auction. Additionally, they secured New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell for , the most expensive overseas signing. Player transfer window was opened from 12 March to 18 March, allowing franchises to trade players. Multan Sultans' salary cap was increased by to allow two additional signings, making the full squad of 22 players.
On 26 March, the PCB introduced a new rule that each captain could submit two sets of first XI to the referee before beginning the match.
Hyderabad Kingsmen Islamabad United Karachi Kings Lahore Qalandars Marnus Labuschagne (c) Saim Ayub Hassan Khan Usman Khan (wk) Glenn Maxwell Akif Javed Maaz Sadaqat Mohammad Ali Kusal Perera Irfan Khan Niazi Shayan Jahangir Hammad Azam Asif Mehmood Hunain Shah Riley Meredith Sharjeel Khan Rizwan Mehmood Saad Ali Tayyab Arif Ahmed Hussain Maheesh Theekshana Saad Khan Shadab Khan (c) Andries Gous Chris Green Devon Conway Faheem Ashraf Mehran Mumtaz Mark Chapman Imad Wasim Mir Hamza Sajjad Sameer Minhas Sameen Gul Haider Ali Richard Gleeson Mohammad Hasnain Dipendra Singh Airee Mohammad Faiq Salman Irshad Salman Mirza Nisar Ahmad Mohsin Riaz Muhammad Jawadullah Mubasir Khan David Warner (c) Hassan Ali Abbas Afridi Khushdil Shah Saad Baig Moeen Ali Azam Khan Salman Ali Agha Shahid Aziz Mir Hamza Adam Zampa Mohammad Hamza Sohail Aqib Ilyas Khuzaima Tanveer Muhammad Waseem Ihsanullah Rizwan Ullah Reeza Hendricks Haroon Arshad Faham-ul-Haq Omair Yousuf Jason Roy Shaheen Shah Afridi (c) Abdullah Shafique Sikandar Raza Muhammad Naeem Mustafizur Rahman Haris Rauf Usama Mir Fakhar Zaman Ubaid Shah Haseebullah Khan Mohammad Farooq Parvez Hossain Emon Asif Ali Tayyab Tahir Rubin Hermann Dunith Wellalage Maaz Khan Shahab Khan Daniel Sams Ryan Burl Hussain Talat Charith Asalanka Multan Sultans Peshawar Zalmi Quetta Gladiators Rawalpindiz Ashton Turner (c) Shan Masood Steve Smith Mohammad Nawaz Sahibzada Farhan Mohammad Wasim Jr. Peter Siddle Tabraiz Shamsi Lachlan Shaw Delano Potgieter Josh Philippe Momin Qamar Mohammad Awais Zafar Mohammad Shehzad Mohammad Ismail Arshad Iqbal Atizaz Habib Khan Faisal Akram Arafat Minhas Mohammad Imran Randhawa Shehzad Gul Mohammad Huraira Babar Azam (c) Sufiyan Muqeem Abdul Samad Ali Raza Aaron Hardie Aamir Jamal Khurram Shahzad Mohammad Haris Khalid Usman Abdul Subhan James Vince Michael Bracewell Kusal Mendis Iftikhar Ahmed Nahid Rana Mirza Tahir Baig Kashif Ali Shahnawaz Dahani Farhan Yousaf Mohammad Basit Shoriful Islam Tanzid Hasan Brian Bennett Umar Akmal Mehran Mumtaz Saud Shakeel (c) Abrar Ahmed Hassan Nawaz Usman Tariq Shamyl Hussain Rilee Rossouw Jahandad Khan Khawaja Nafay Wasim Akram Jr. Khan Zaib Bismillah Khan Saqib Khan Brett Hampton Sam Harper Bevon Jacobs Ben McDermott Tom Curran Jahanzaib Sultan Ahmed Daniyal Alzarri Joseph Ahsan Ali Ali Khan Abdul Bangalzai Mohammad Rizwan (c, wk) Sam Billings Yasir Khan Naseem Shah Rishad Hossain Daryl Mitchell Mohammad Amir Abdullah Fazal Amad Butt Dian Forrester Kamran Ghulam Fawad Ali Mohammad Amir Khan Asif Afridi Shahzaib Khan Saad Masood Jalat Khan Cole McConchie Usman Khawaja Imam-ul-Haq Sajid Khan Abdul Faseeh Ben Sears
Venues
The PCB revealed the venue details on 10 March 2026. Lahore hosted the opening match as well as the final.
Initially the tournament was scheduled to be held across six cities, but due to the economic impact of the 2026 Iran war, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on 22 March that the tournament would be played in only two cities, Lahore and Karachi, temporarily behind closed doors to reduce movement to save fuel. The opening ceremony was also cancelled. Later, on the request of franchise owners, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif allowed the fans to attend the playoffs and the final.
Venues: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore National Bank Stadium, Karachi
Match officials On 23 March 2026, the PCB announced the list of fifteen umpires and eight match referees for the league stage. They included four members of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and nine of the PCB domestic umpires. Roshan Mahanama returned to extend his record of 71 matches as a match referee in the PSL. Richie Richardson, Allahudien Paleker, and Sharfuddoula made their first appearances as match officials in PSL. Alex Wharf and Ahsan Raza were named as on-field umpires for the opening match with Asif Yaqoob as television umpire and Tariq Rasheed as fourth umpire.
Match referees
Richie Richardson Roshan Mahanama Ali Naqvi Kamran Chaudhary Bilal Khilji Aleem Moosa Iftikhar Ahmed Sohail Idrees
Umpires
Ahsan Raza Chris Gaffaney Sharfuddoula Saikat Allahudien Paleker Alex Wharf Chris Brown Asif Yaqoob Rashid Riaz Faisal Afridi Zulfiqar Jan Nasir Hussain Abdul Muqeet Alay Haider Tariq Rasheed Imran Javed
Marketing
The season's logo variant was revealed on 4 March, with an official nomenclature, HBL PSL 11, and the official anthem was released on 24 March, titled "Khelenge Beat Pe".
Broadcast In February 2026, PCB held three bids for broadcasting rights; however, the rights for India were withheld. Walee Technologies, who were also the owners of the Rawalpindiz franchise, won all bids, including the international rights, with a 149 percent increase in value as compared to the previous rights cycle, although the official financial figures were not disclosed. Also, the local broadcasting and streaming rights were sold for for a four-year period.
The names for the commentary panel and presenters were revealed on 23 March. Notably, Shoaib Malik made his debut in Urdu commentary after retiring from the game, as he had played in the previous ten seasons. Due to no on-field spectators, this edition was a watch-from-home event, having a dedicated Urdu feed along with a match analysis talk show which was introduced for the first time.
League stage Format Due to the expansion to eight teams, this edition was played under a revised format with a total of 44 matches, replacing the double round-robin format used in previous editions. The teams were divided into two virtual groups of four; each team played twice against the other teams in its group and once against each team in the opposite group, resulting in a total of ten league-stage matches per team. The top four teams in the overall standings qualified for the playoffs, which were played under the page playoff system to determine the champion.
Points table
League progression
League summary
Fixtures
The schedule was planned following the completion of the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup, which was held during February and March, and the league also coincided with the 2026 Indian Premier League. The PCB announced a revised schedule on 22 March 2026.
Playoffs
Bracket
Qualifier
Eliminator 1
Eliminator 2
Final
Awards and statistics
Most runs Runs Player Team 588Babar AzamPeshawar Zalmi1110373.50550Kusal MendisPeshawar Zalmi1110955.00401Fakhar ZamanLahore Qalandars810357.28389Usman KhanHyderabad Kingsmen1310135.36380Sahibzada FarhanMultan Sultans10106*42.22Steve SmithMultan Sultans1110634.54 Source: ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets Player Team 22Sufiyan MuqeemPeshawar Zalmi114/3214.4020Mohammad AliHyderabad Kingsmen123/2118.9517Shadab KhanIslamabad United103/1314.47Hunain ShahHyderabad Kingsmen104/2218.4116Shaheen AfridiLahore Qalandars104/1818.18 Source: ESPNcricinfo
End of season awards
Name Team Award Sufiyan Muqeem Peshawar Zalmi Player of the Tournament Babar Azam Peshawar Zalmi Batsman of the tournament Sufiyan Muqeem Peshawar Zalmi Bowler of the tournament Shadab Khan Islamabad United All-rounder of the tournament Kusal Mendis Peshawar Zalmi Wicket-keeper of the tournament Farhan Yousaf Peshawar Zalmi Fielder of the tournament Hunain Shah Hyderabad Kingsmen Emerging player of the tournament Asif Yaqoob Umpire of the tournament Hyderabad Kingsmen Spirit of cricket
Source: Geo Super
Team of the tournament