Peshawar Zalmi

The eighth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) gets underway on Monday, with Multan Sultans taking on defending champions Lahore Qalandars in Multan.
We bring to you a team-wise break-up leading up to the start of another PSL season, with Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi in the first of three previews ahead of the action.

Peshawar Zalmi
Captain: Babar Azam
Coach: Daren Sammy
Batting Consultant: Kamran Akmal

Full squad: Babar Azam, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Aamer Jamal, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad,
Haseebullah Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Richard Gleeson, Peter Hatzoglou Sufyan Muqeem, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Usman Qadir, Jimmy Neesham, Haris Sohail

Last season: Eliminator
Zalmi faced an uphill struggle to guarantee playoff qualification given how the first half of their campaign went. They sat fifth after their first six games,
having won just two matches until then and needing four successive wins to guarantee qualification. But a late-season surge thanks to a number of individual performances in key
games ensured they achieved just that, ultimately finishing in third place. In the playoffs, though, that run came to an end in the first Eliminator, as Islamabad United pipped them in a thriller.

What has changed this season?
Babar arrives and immediately takes over the captaincy, and how Zalmi and Babar work together would be fascinating. After seven seasons at Kings, a franchise
that has been inconsistent throughout its history, he arrives at one which has sustained success; Zalmi are the only PSL side never to miss out on the playoffs.

However, Zalmi have lost out on a number of power hitters that shone at crucial stages in 2022. Hazratullah Zazai, Haider Ali and Liam Livingstone have all left, as has Malik.
It places significant responsibility on two young local batters in Mohammad Haris and Saim Ayub, each of whom enjoyed breakout seasons in the last 12 months.

But in the West Indies duo of Sherfane Rutherford and Rovman Powell – the latter only partly available – as well as big-hitters Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Jimmy Neesham,
they might just have replaced them adequately enough.

Key stat
Zalmi now have the highest wicket-taker in PSL history in Riaz (103), as well as the most prolific run-scorer in Babar (2413).

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