Warner, Williamson, Joseph and Mitchell to make their PSL debut

Warner

Daryl Mitchell of New Zealand is first pick in the HBL PSL 2025 player Draft after the reigning champions Lahore Qalandars brought him into their ranks at Huzoori Bagh in Lahore Fort on Monday afternoon. Mitchell who has made 70 T20Is will start for HBL PSL this year. 

Karachi Kings pouched Left Hander David Warner using the 2nd pick in the Platinum round. Warner, who is already a big-time player as he has 12,727 T20 runs in 392 T20 matches, will also be on the list of high debutants. 

The Right to Match option in Peshawar Zalmi for Tom Kohler-Cadmore went to Quetta Gladiators. Kohler-Cadmore has started for Zalmi in four of their last five HBL PSL seasons. 

Gladiators then added New Zealand’s Mark Chapman, who has made 81 T20Is in a 10-year international stint (and is also a dual international). 

Michael Bracewell and Matthew Short, the two last players in the Platinum one round who Multan Sultans & Islamabad United respectively landed on. Bracewell is a New Zealand all-format player who has reached 149 T20I matches where he has made 2744 runs and 66 wickets. 

Short’s 29-year-old body will become a part of Islamabad’s potent attacking powerpack that should see them add a fourth HBL PSL Trophy to their trophy cabinet later this year. 

Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings got 2 picks each in Platinum round two. Gladiators grabbed all-rounder Faheem Ashraf with their Wild Card pick option. 

Uncomfortable Kiwi opener Finn Allen was the other pick Quetta had in this round. Allen, 25, has been playing 47 T20Is for New Zealand and he has racked up 1141 runs at the top of the order with two centuries and 158.69. 

Karachi Kings added to their pace toolkit by selecting Adam Milne with their Platinum two round selection and then using Wild Card on Mohammad Abbas Afridi. 

Milne will add extra pace to the HBL PSL 2025 and averaging 23.61 from 186 T20s for which he’s picked up 213 wickets. Moreover, Abbas Afridi, now an assistant at the Kings, was the top scorer – 23 wickets, for Multan Sultans in HBL PSL 2023, and also got into the tournament’s team of the tournament. 

On the Diamond round of picks Peshawar Zalmi, Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars brought home some high level foreign talent in the shape of Corbin Bosch, Jason Holder and Kusal Perera. Bosch went to Zalmi, Holder to United and Perera to Qalandars. 

Peshawar Zalmi augmented pace stocks with Bangladesh’s Nahid Rana in the Gold category round one. Rana is 22 years old and in his short international career has shocked everybody with his express speed. 

The same category was occupied by Islamabad United’s pick of the Aussie left-arm fast bowler Ben Dwarshuis, who has taken 176 T20 wickets at an average of 22 over 140 matches. His countrymen Riley Meredith and Short are also on the United squad for HBL PSL 2025. 

Round three, Bangladesh leg-spinner Rishad Hossain is removed by Qalandars in Silver tournament. For the first time, United States of America (USA) Andries Gous was called to HBL PSL 2025 and will feature for Islamabad United. Multan Sultans picked up Irish batsman Josh Little and West Indies’ spinner Gudakesh Motie in this round. 

In the extra round one Kane Williamson was selected by Karachi Kings and will be joined by his New Zealand counterpart Milne. He will be among Kings’ big-money foreign acquisitions along with Mohammad Nabi, David Warner and Litton Das. 

In the second round, Sultans, Qalandars, Gladiators and Zalmi thumped Johnson Charles, Tom Curran, Kusal Mendis and pacer Alzarri Joseph respectively. Sam Billings was caught in round two by Qalandars who scored a Right to Match against defending champions Islamabad United who added Rassie van der Dussen. 

Quetta Gladiators picked up a surprise in Supplementary round two as they got the best pick of Australia’s Sean Abbott and it has given them some more pace and batting power. Sultans drafted Shai Hope and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi is going back to Karachi Kings this year. 

Shoaib Malik scored 10th straight HBL PSL goal when he was snapped up by Quetta Gladiators in the Supplementary round three. The two Emerging rounds of picks that stood out were, the batting wonder Hasan Nawaz landing on Gladiators’ team and Maaz Sadaqat landing on Zalmi. 

Saad Masood, right-arm leg-spinner and batsman was also sensational in the last Champions T20 Cup in Rawalpindi, settled in Islamabad United and will be skippered by Shadab Khan himself. Hunain Shah remained at Islamabad United and Ubaid Shah got dumped by Multan Sultans. 

Excitement builds!  Warner, Williamson, Joseph, and Mitchell will all have their first PSL season, don’t miss out on it and track their PSL career. Subscribe to Sports Monks for all the latest!

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