With the tournament playoffs indefinitely postponed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, The Cricketer selects from all six franchises to celebrate the cream of the crop
473 runs, average 59.12, strike rate 124.14
The world's top-ranked batsman in international T20 cricket did a fine job as the entire tournament landed on home soil for the first time, with five scores of 50 seeing him end comfortably as the leading run-scorer. He showed the extent of his class with match-winning knocks in the qualifier and final for his Karachi Kings side.
Unlike the other batsmen at the top end of the table, Babar did not blaze his way to his runs – a league-best 55 fours came alongside just five sixes, and the 381 deliveries he faced were 129 more than the next best batsman, Lahore Qalandars opener Fakhar Zaman. The only time he failed to reach double figures was against Islamabad United, when he was run out in the first over of the chase before even getting the strike from partner Sharjeel Khan.
284 runs, average 40.57, strike rate 179.74
It's taken five years to make it happen, but finally the Lahore Qalandars franchise has scraped itself off the bottom of the PSL pile and – thanks to tournament debutant Chris Lynn – catapulted itself right into the playoff mix with an astonishing win on home turf to close the group stages. Sadly, Lynn was unable to return for the final stages as his teammates fell short in the final.
The Australian's unbeaten 113 from 55 deliveries against Multan Sultans on the final day carried the side across the elusive line with the biggest chase and highest individual score of the tournament, with no fewer than 96 runs coming from Lynn's 20 boundary strokes alone.
Remarkably, the innings was just the second time the destructive Lynn had tallied triple-figures in T20 cricket – his previous best was 101 from 51 balls in the 2015/16 Big Bash – but it capped a fine tournament from the 29-year-old, who struck at a strike rate of 187 in the powerplay overs. He scored just shy of 79 per cent of his runs through shots to the rope.
266 runs, average 38.00, strike rate 156.47, seven dismissals
Even as he knocks on the door of his 40th year, Islamabad United gloveman Luke Ronchi appears to have an insatiable appetite for PSL runs. Sure, this year's haul falls short of the PSL record he set in 2018 with 435 runs in 11 games, and even the 319 he posted last time around, but this coronavirus-shortened campaign still saw him land equal-third in group-stage runs and do so while striking at 9.4 runs per over, taking his tally for the franchise above 1,000.
The former Australia and New Zealand international – and now a part of the Blackcaps' fielding staff – was the only overseas player retained as Islamabad started afresh for this year's tournament with a new captain and coach, and the results suggest a further overhaul may be needed for next year's campaign. Yet, Ronchi stood out as one of the side's two clear stars from this campaign.
Ben Dunk became the first batsman to hit 10 sixes in a single PSL innings, and then did it again
300 runs, average 37.5, strike rate 167.59
Coming off the back of his weakest Big Bash campaign in eight years, Australian Ben Dunk had a somewhat inconsistent run across his first PSL campaign with the Qalandars franchise, but when he found his groove he was the most lethal striker the league had ever seen.
Against Quetta Gladiators in his second game of the tournament, the 32-year-old became the first batsman in PSL history to strike 10 sixes in a single innings – breaking a record of eight shared by the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Kamran Akmal and Colin Ingram – before then smashing his own marker in Lahore five days later with 12 sixes in a remarkable 40-ball blitz.
The knock also earned him the peculiar honour of the most sixes in any T20 innings without reaching three figures – Dunk's 15th boundary of the day sealed an eight-wicket win with five balls to spare, and brought his score to a tournament-best 99 not out. He was unable to repeat the trick when the competition returned in November.
263 runs, average 37.57, strike rate 159.39, eight wickets, economy 8.24
It was a new dawn for two-time champions Islamabad United this year, and not a particularly successful one as far as the table reflects. With a new coach, captain Mohammad Sami first dropped from the roster and then overlooked by all six franchises at the draft, and Pakistan national coach and selector Misbah-ul-Haq finally hanging up his playing boots to take the reins, three wins and a league wooden spoon is hardly the dream return.
But the emergence of new skipper Shadab Khan as a world-class T20 allrounder was perhaps the biggest revelation of the tournament as a whole. The 22-year-old is no stranger to the domestic and international circuits, yet until now that had been purely as a leg-spinner.
Here, after going wicketless in each of his side's first two outings, he moved up the order to No.4 for the first time in his career and lashed a top score of 52 from 29 in a one-wicket win over Lahore, and added scores of 54 not out from 31 balls and a career-best 77 from 42 before the ill-fated campaign was out. Add in a haul of eight wickets – best on the team, as well as third among spinners – and you have a bona fide T20 superstar emerging.
239 runs, average 26.5, strike rate 158.27
This year’s PSL was a riotous celebration of the elite game returning to Pakistan, and it would simply not be Pakistani cricket without a newcomer bolting from the blue and setting the game alight.
Haider Ali, aged 19, had just five games of List A cricket for Pakistan's under-23 side under his belt at the start of the tournament when his Peshawar Zalmi franchise – finalists at each of the last three tournaments – slotted him in at first drop behind Tom Banton and Kamran Akmal in their opening game. One week later, he lashed 47 from 27 in front of a packed Multan crowd in a low-scoring thriller and was well and truly away.
Ali finished the campaign 12 runs shy of veteran teammate Kamran Akmal, the PSL's all-time leading scorer and a centurion early in the campaign, and 39 behind Shoaib Malik, who made his Pakistan ODI debut almost an entire year before the youngster was born. Capping off his campaign with 69 from 43 against Lahore gave him a maiden half-century, and Pakistan's star from the Under-19 World Cup is sure to add many more on this form. An inevitable international debut has since followed.
Shadab Khan starred with both bat and ball while captaining Islamabad United
131 runs, average 43.7, strike rate 170.12, 12 wickets, economy 8.4
The South African had a quiet tournament until it mattered most. With Lahore Qalandars something of a surprise package in reaching the playoffs, the 35-year-old played a remarkable hand with bat and ball in knocking out group winners Multan Sultans.
He struck 48 off just 21 balls, before dismissing Adam Lyth, Ravi Bopara and Sohail Tanvir in a match-winning spell.
14 wickets, economy 7.54
Tanvir, now 35, has been a fixture on the glitzy T20 stage dating back even to when Pakistani players were permitted to feature in the IPL.
Sure, wicket-wise he specialised this time around in clearing up tail-enders, but his efficiency was superb, ensuring Multan dominated the initial phase of the competition, even if he and his teammates were unable to repeat the trick in the latter phase.
11 wickets, economy 7.43
Imran Tahir and Shahid Afridi were the only two players in the tournament who had made it to the age of 40, but that made no difference to Multan as they charged to the top of the table in the round-robin phase, newly under the tutelage of Andy Flower.
Tahir's 11 wickets led the way for all spinners in the tournament – in second was Lahore's 35-year-old ex-England import Samit Patel on 10.
A disappointing end for Tahir, with defeats against Karachi and Lahore, but overall another fine tournament for the timeless leg-spinner.
Quetta quick Mohammad Hasnain now has 27 wickets in 16 PSL apperances
15 wickets, economy 8.96
Eighteen months ago, Mohammad Hasnain burst onto the scene with 12 wickets from his first seven PSL outings and earned an international debut aged 18 just seven days after being named player of the match in the final. This time around, the Quetta quick proved those numbers were no fluke, topping the wicket charts despite his side ending up languishing outside the playoff spots when the curtains were drawn over the weekend.
Hasnain bowled 36 deliveries in the last four overs of the innings, and yet seven of these ended up claiming wickets at 6.29 runs apiece. Figures of 4 for 25 on the opening night were as good as his returns got, and a dearth of consistent support around him ensured the title-holders lost their grip on the trophy and conceded more runs per six balls than any other side.
But, with the spotlight perhaps more on teammate Naseem Shah after the 17-year-old's phenomenal start to Test cricket in recent months, Hasnain almost certainly used his raw pace to remind the watching world of his talents.
17 wickets, economy 7.11
At the start of the tournament, we picked out three seamers who would be key to the Qalandars' quest to lift themselves off the bottom of the table at the fifth attempt: Shaheen Afridi, Usman Shinwari and Haris Rauf. All three have featured in T20 international action for Pakistan in recent times, but although Rauf took 10 PSL wickets this time around, Shinwari had a largely forgettable competition.
The 20-year-old Afridi, on the other hand, continued to assert himself as Pakistan's go-to bowler whatever the situation. His final tally overhauled that of Hasnain, who is just one day older, but Afridi went through his overs at a startling economy that was the best of any seamer to take at least seven wickets.
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