Off the blocks

This piece is being written before the Wednesday and Thursday contests, which would have seen Quetta Gladiators take on Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi play Karachi Kings by the time you read this. These contests would be the start of the second leg of the ongoing fourth season of the Pakistan Super League in Sharjah.

The first leg, played out in Dubai, finished on Sunday, with more than a hint that the group stage would be fiercely contested. This is demonstrated by the fact that every team has won at least one contest so far, and all barring the Gladiators – as things stand – have lost at least one as well.

For the fourth season running, Gladiators look like the team to beat in the group stages. The Quetta side were runners up in each of the first two PSL seasons. While the Gladiators were slightly below par last season, they still made the playoffs. Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, for whom Gladiators were the jumping board for his ongoing successful T20I stint with Pakistan, holds the key to his side continuing to do well in the group stages, with Shane Watson and Umar Akmal in devastating form with the bat.

After Quetta, it’s usual suspects Peshawar Zalmi that have looked the best among the remaining lot along with Karachi Kings and Multan Sultans. Zalmi, Kings and Sultans have only lost one match each, as things stand.

For Zalmi, Darren Sammy’s leadership is key. Their strength lies in their pace attack spearheaded by Hasan Ali and Wahab Riaz. Kamran Akmal is the all-time leading scorer in the Pakistan Super League, and he has already showed that he might score big this season as well with the knock against the Gladiators. Two time PSL winning captain with Islamabad United Misbah-ul-Haq provides the brains and the batting experience, and is off to a strong start with his solitary innings against the Gladiators.

Kings have beaten Sultans but lost to Lahore Qalandars so far. Liam Livingstone and Babar Azam give them batting strength up top, but their power hitters are yet to come good. With skipper Imad Wasim, Mohammed Amir, Usman Shinwari and Sohail Khan, Kings have a strong local bowling contingent. If their batting clicks regularly, the Kings could go deep this season.

For the fourth season running, Gladiators look like the team to beat in the group stages

While the Sultans narrowly lost to the Kings, they convincingly beat defending champions Islamabad United. Shoaib Malik has been critical in the middle order for them, and it’s evident that Multan need much more from openers, especially Shan Masood. Shahid Afridi has showed signs of form with both bat and ball, and he along with Andre Russel are two players who can win Sultans the PSL title if they can play anyway near their best.

Two-time winners Islamabad United and three-time bottom placed Lahore Qalandars are the only sides to have lost two matches each. For United, their win on the opening day against Qalandars hinted that they might be the team to beat again this season. However, their batting let them down against Sultans and Gladiators, with the bowling not coming good either. Shadab Khan, the newly promoted Vice Captain, hasn’t displayed any of his usual form in the PSL. The same is true for the new captain Mohammed Sami.

Qalandars seem to already find themselves in the familiar spot of fighting for survival in the group stages, with two losses in the first three matches. Furthermore, Captain Mohammed Hafeez has been ruled out of the tournament with injury, and stand in skipper – and the biggest overseas name in the league – AB De Villiers yet to do anything meaningful with the bat. The bowling performances of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Rahat Ali have been impressive. However, it’s obvious that Qalandars’ long-standing problem still persists: they don’t have a lower-middle order and hence don’t score many runs after the Power Play.

However, it’s still early days in PSL 4 and all to play for. It’s after the Sharjah leg that the league table would begin to take proper shape.