Gladiators induct Hetmyer, Sultans pick Willey for PSL-VII

KARACHI: Former champions Quetta Gladiators on Saturday drafted in West Indies hard-hitting batsman Shimron Hetmyer as a replacement pick while holders Multan Sultans got England’s all-rounder David Willey as a supplementary pick in the replacement and supplementary draft held virtually.

Hard-hitting Ben Dunk of Australia has been picked by Lahore Qalandars.

The squads submitted partial replacements for the players unavailable for the initial few matches.

Islamabad United picked the recently-concluded Quaid-e-Azam Trophy’s leading scorer Mohammad Huraira, nephew of Shoaib Malik, as an emerging pick.

Karachi Kings opted to pick the QT second leading scorer Sahibzada Farhan of Charsadda in the supplementary round.

The 2020 champions Karachi Kings had the first supplementary pick and they added Sahibzada Farhan, winner of the PCB Domestic Cricketer of the Year Award 2021, to their squad.

Lahore Qalandars, who had the second pick in the first round, picked pacer Imran Randhawa.

In the next four picks, Islamabad United added pacer Musa Khan, who played for them in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons; Quetta Gladiators reserved their pick; Multan Sultans picked England pacer David Willey; and Peshawar Zalmi picked Mohammad Umar.

The second round followed reverse order in which Peshawar Zalmi, the winners of the second edition of HBL PSL, going first, reserved their pick.

Defending champions Multan Sultans picked Rizwan Hussain, while Quetta Gladiators picked Ghulam Mudassar.

Two-time champions Islamabad United hired Zahir Khan.

Lahore Qalandars boosted their pace department with the addition of Akif Javed.

Karachi Kings picked Jordan Thompson.

Each franchise was allowed to pick one foreign cricketer out of the two supplementary picks. Making the most of the opportunity to replace those players who were partially unavailable in the HBL PSL 7, Multan Sultans replaced Odean Smith with wicket-keeper-batter Johnson Charles of the West Indies and Rovman Powell with Dominic Drakes of the West Indies.

Quetta Gladiators replaced Naveen-ul-Haq with left-arm pacer Luke Wood, James Vince with Will Smeed, Jason Roy with Shimron Hetmyer and Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmed with Ali Imran.

Karachi Kings replaced Pakistan Under-19 captain Qasim Akram, who is on the national duty in the West Indies for the ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup, with left-arm spinner Mohammad Taha Khan and reserved their pick for Tom Abell.

Qasim’s teammate Zeeshan Zamir was replaced with Mohammad Huraira, who had a terrific debut first-class season stroking a triple-century and finishing as the highest run-getter in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

The unavailablility of English wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt for a few initial matches saw Ben Dunk reuniting with Lahore Qalandars. Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators reserved their one supplementary pick each, while all franchises except Quetta Gladiators reserved their picks in the replacement round.

Saturday’s picks:

Islamabad United – In supplementary round: Musa Khan and Zahir Khan (Silver). In replacement round: Mohammad Huraira (Emerging)

Karachi Kings – In supplementary round: Sahibzada Farhan and Jordan Thompson (both Silver). In replacement round: Mohammad Taha Khan (Emerging)

Lahore Qalandars – In supplementary round: Mohammad Imran Randhawa and Akif Javed (both silver). In replacement round: Ben Dunk (Gold)

Multan Sultans – In supplementary round: David Willey (Diamond), Rizwan Hussain (Silver). In replacement round: Johnson Charles and Dominic Drakes (both Silver)

Peshawar Zalmi – In supplementary round: Mohammad Umer (Emerging). Quetta Gladiators – In supplementary round: Ghulam Mudassar (Emerging). In replacement round: Luke Wood, Will Smeed and Ali Imran (all Silver), Shimron Hetmyer (Diamond)