LAHORE:South Africa’s Faf du Plessis will make his HBL Pakistan SuperLeague debut as he was one of the 21 foreign stars to confirm hisparticipation in the remaining four matches of Pakistan’s marquee event,which will be played in Karachi on 14, 15 and 17 November.
Du Plessis has played 255 international matches for South Africa, including47 T20Is and is ranked 31st in the ICC T20I Player Rankings for Batsmen.
Du Plessis last visited Pakistan in 2017 as the ICC World XI captain andwill represent Peshawar Zalmi as a replacement player for Kieron Pollard,who will be in New Zealand with the West Indies side.
Besides du Plessis, Cameron Delport (Karachi Kings), Dane Vilas, DavidWiese (both Lahore Qalandars), Rilee Rossouw, Imran Tahir (both MultanSultans) and Hardus Viljoen (Peshawar Zalmi) are the other South Africaplayers who will be in action in the tournament that carries a total prizemoney of $1million.
Six England cricketers, led by Alex Hales and James Vince, have also showntheir commitment to continue to feature in one of the most attractive andwidely followed leagues.
Hales and Vince will be in Karachi Kings’ and Multan Sultan’s coloursrespectively, while the other four England players are Samit Patel (LahoreQalandars), Adam Lyth, Ravi Bopara (both Multan Sultans) and LiamLivingstone (Peshawar Zalmi).
Off the four West Indies players, two – Chadwick Walton and SherfaneRutherford – will appear for Karachi, while two – Carlos Brathwaite andDaren Sammy – will represent Peshawar Zalmi. Rutherford will replace ChrisJordon, who will be in South Africa with the England side.
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Bangladesh will be represented in the HBL PSL 2020 by Tamim Iqbal (LahoreQalandars) and Mahmudullah (Multan Sultans), while Ben Dunk, who was one ofthe stars in the initial stages of the HBL PSL this year, will be aiming tohelp Lahore Qalandars win their first title in five attempts.
HBL PSL 2020 was the first event to be held entirely in Pakistan since itsinception in 2016. The fifth edition commenced in Karachi on 20 February,but was suspended on 17 March.Apart from Karachi and Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan were the two othervenues to host 30 of the 34 matches as nearly half a million spectatorscrossed turnstiles to witness live action.
Faf du Plessis said on Monday “I am very excited to join Peshawar Zalmi forthe playoff stage games of HBL PSL 2020. I have fond memories of playing inPakistan when I toured with the ICC World XI in 2017 and I am sure thisexperience, although different due to Covid-19, will be a memorable one aswell.”
Mahmudullah said , “It’s an honour to play in the HBL PSL. Cricket is beingplayed very differently this year and I hope to play a part in bringingsmiles to the faces of our fans.”Tamim Iqbal said : “I can’t wait to be back at the HBL PSL. LahoreQalandars have had an amazing journey and I want to help our team win thetrophy this year.”Squads:
Karachi Kings (5 foreign players) – Aamir Yamin, Alex Hales (England),Arshad Iqbal, Awais Zia, Babar Azam, Cameron Delport (South Africa),Chadwick Walton (West Indies), Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, MitchelMcClenaghan (New Zealand), Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Sharjeel Khan,Sherfane Rutherford (West Indies), Umaid Asif, Umer Khan,Usama Mir andWaqas MaqsoodLahore Qalandars (5 foreign players) – Abid Ali, Agha Salman, Ben Dunk(Australia), Dane Vilas (South Africa), David Wiese (South Africa), DilbarHussain, Fakhar Zaman, Farzan Raja, Haris Rauf, Jaahid Ali, Maaz Khan,Mohammad Faizan, Mohammad Hafeez, Samit Patel (England), Shaheen ShahAfridi, Sohail Akhtar, Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh) and Usman ShinwariMultan Sultans (6 foreign players) – Adam Lyth (England), Ali Shafiq,Bilawal Bhatti, Imran Tahir (South Africa), James Vince (England), JunaidKhan, Khushdil Shah, Mahmudullah (Bangladesh), Mohammad Ilyas, MohammadIrfan, Ravi Bopara (England), Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Rohail Nazir,Shaan Masood, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Usman Qadir and Zeeshan AshrafPeshawar Zalmi (5 foreign players) – Aamir Ali, Adil Amin, CarlosBrathwaite (West Indies), Daren Sammy (West Indies), Faf du Plessis (SouthAfrica), Haider Ali Khan, Hardus Viljoen (South Africa), Hasan Ali,Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Khurram Shehzad, Liam Livingstone (England),Mohammad Mohsin, Rahat Ali, Shoaib Malik, Umar Amin, Wahab Riaz and YasirShahReplacements:Karachi Kings – Sherfane Rutherford comes in for Chris Jordan; WaqasMaqsood comes in for Ali KhanLahore Qalandars – Tamim comes in for Chris Lynn, Abid Ali replaces SalmanButt and Agha Salman takes over from Seekkuge Prasanna.Multan Sultans – Mahmudullah comes in for Moeen Ali; Adam Lyth replacedFabian AllenPeshawar Zalmi – Faf du Plessis replaces Kieron Pollard; Hardus Viljoenjoins in place of Liam Dawson; Yasir Shah will continue, replacing LewisGregory; Khurram Shahzad joins the side in place of Amir Khan.
