Good news for all the cricket fans came last year when the sixth team was also added to Pakistan Super League’s third edition in 2018. In June 2017, Schon Group won the rights to the sixth team .i.e MULTAN SULTAN. Fortune was with them as the legend Sultan Wasim Akram joined them as Director of Cricketing Operations, who was earlier associated with Islamabad United, the champions of the first season. Multan Sultans were given the opportunity to pick nine players in pre-draft from the players that older teams did not retain. They totally grabbed this opportunity and picked Shoaib Malik as their skipper. Malik was also the captain of Karachi Kings in the first season of PSL in 2016.
Malik is a very well experienced international player, having an average of 29.7 at an impressive strike rate of 117.3. He has also captained Pakistan International Team. In support of Malik, Kumar Sangakkara also joined his hands. The former players of Karachi Kings are back together in Sultan’s squad. Both having bunch of experience, and dozens of runs and records in their bucket.
Other picks by Sultans in pre Draft were Keiron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Irfan Khan and Kashif Bhatti.
Multan was able to pick pretty good and experienced players in their Pre Draft. The combination of senior T20 players like Malik, Sanga and Pollard makes them a favourite side of PSL 3 already.
The first pick by Sultans during the draft was Imran Tahir. It’ll be the debut of 38 years old in Pakistan Super League. And fans are excited to see his magical spells in upcoming season starting from 22 February, where they’ll be facing current champions Zalmi in their first match.
After Tahir, the Sultans picked Darren Bravo, then they picked Ahmad Shahzad in the gold category. Followed by Shahzad, Sultans picked Nic Pooran and Muhammad Abbas.
In the category of emerging players, Sultans picked Abdullah Shafiq and Saif Badar, and as supplementary, they picked Hardus Viljoen, Umar Gul, Umar Siddiq and Ross Whiteley.
Sultans took a wise decision by choosing Tom Moody as Head Coach, keeping in mind that he has a lot of experience from all around the world from different leagues.
Now the current squad of Multan Sultans looks like this:
Batsmen: Ahmed Shehzad, Sohaib Maqsood, Abdullah Shafiq, Darren Bravo, Saif Badar, Umar Siddiq, Shan Masood
All-rounders: Shoaib Malik (captain), Sohail Tanvir, Kieron Pollard, Kashif Bhatti, Ross Whiteley
Wicket-keepers: Kumar Sangakkara, Nicholas Pooran
Bowlers: Umar Gul, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Imran Tahir, Irfan Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Hardus Viljoen
And Thisara Perera might cover for Imran Tahir.
Well, the newly formed team of PSL, seems to be a pretty balanced side having experienced all-rounders, batsmen and bowlers. In my opinion, they have the capability for qualifying for playoffs. They might create history by becoming the champions in their debut season.
