Gladiators fret over foreign players’ availability

SHARJAH: Sarfraz Ahmed came across as a worried man on Thursday night.Hoping to finally lead Quetta Gladiators to the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) title, Sarfraz is fretting over the prospects of playing in the eliminators in Lahore next week without his key foreign players.

Quetta seem set for a trip to Lahore after suffering back-to-back defeats against Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United as they can only make it to Sunday’s qualifier in Dubai if the results of Friday’s matches in Sharjah go in their favour.

“There is certainly this fear that some of our foreign players might not go to Lahore,” Sarfraz said after his team lost its last league game against Islamabad United in Sharjah.Sarfraz said that while Kevin Pietersen has already refused to make the trip to Pakistan other foreign players including Australia’s Shane Watson, one of the highest run-getters of the PSL 3, are also reluctant to make a commitment.

“It’s certainly a concern for us,” said Sarfraz, who saw his team crash to a big defeat in the PSL final in Lahore last year. A depleted Quetta team, whose foreign players refused to travel to Pakistan, proved no match for a full-strength Peshawar Zalmi side in last year’s finale at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Things could be as bad for Quetta if they fail to finish among the top-two. However, Sarfraz put up a brave face and said that his team, which ended as losing finalists in the first two PSL editions, will give its best to win the title this time.

Speaking about Thursday night’s defeat, Sarfraz said that his team was 20-30 runs short.He added that the decision to bat first was taken with the belief that Quetta had the firepower to post a big total. But he lamented that the top order flopped and the team could finally just manage 147 which wasn’t a big enough total on the Sharjah wicket.