Excitement in the air ahead of Pakistan leg of HBL PSL

DUBAI: It feels like déjà vu. On Sunday, at a time when defending champions Peshawar Zalmi were reconfirming that almost their entire squad including overseas players will be available for the Eliminators in Lahore, their opponents Quetta Gladiators were scrambling to raise a line-up decent enough to take a shot at a place in the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) final.

It was a similar scenario when the two teams clashed in the final of last year’s PSL in Lahore. Then, buoyed up by the presence of their foreign stars including inspiring skipper Darren Sammy, Zalmi just steamrolled a depleted Quetta team to win the title by a huge margin.

This year, both teams are still two matches away from the final but it is apparent that Quetta are in trouble ahead of the first eliminator to be played at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday (tomorrow).

With leading foreign stars like Kevin Pietersen and Shane Watson refusing to travel to Pakistan, Quetta have been forced to fill in their ranks with whoever is available for PSL duty.They did receive some good news when the PSL technical committee allowed them to sign Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera for the rest of the PSL.

The 28-year-old Perera was signed by debutants Multan Sultans but didn’t play a single game for them in PSL 3. The Sultans were one of the two teams to stumble out of the contest at the first hurdle along with Lahore Qalandars.

Quetta are also hopeful that they will be able to convince their South African batsman Rilee Rossouw to make the trip to Pakistan. There were speculations on Sunday that Rossouw has agreed to play in Lahore but a Quetta official said that nothing is final yet. “We are still in talks with him and hopefully he will be with us in Lahore,” he said.

Quetta have lined up England’s 23-year-old batsman Tom Kohler-Cadmore, West Indies’ Johnson Charles and Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah for the final leg of PSL 3. Kohler-Cadmore is yet to play international cricket but has already made his bones as a destructive hitter in the shortest format of the game.

Meanwhile, Pakistan players of Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators have started assembling in Lahore ahead of Tuesday’s potentially explosive game.The Zalmi players landed in Lahore after a brief stop-over in Karachi. Their senior batsman Mohammad Hafeez took to Twitter to announce his excitement before the games in Lahore and Karachi.

A Zalmi official announced on Sunday that his team will carry out a training session under lights at the Gaddafi Stadium on Monday.Quetta on Sunday shared pictures on social media as the local members of the squad landed at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport. They included captain Sarfraz Ahmed, Asad Shafiq, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Umar Amin and Hassan Khan.

Both teams announced that their foreign players will also be in Lahore by Monday night. A presidential level security cover is awaiting them in Lahore.The team that wins in Tuesday’s eliminator will play with the loser of Sunday night’s Qualifier in Dubai featuring Islamabad United and Karachi Kings. The winner of that game on Wednesday will qualify for the final in Karachi.