Who are the young players in PSL 2020 to watch out for in the upcoming fifth edition of the tournament? We take a look.
The 2020 Pakistan Super League gets underway on February 20. It will be the fifth installment of a tournament that is hugely popular in Pakistan, and indeed the world over, and as always, PSL 2020 will have its share of young players looking to make a name for themselves.
T20 competitions have becomes pathways to the national team – just ask Haris Rauf, who starred in the BBL 2019-20 and went on to make his T20I debut for Pakistan. There is plenty riding on the tournament’s young guns.
We take a look at the potential future stars.
The 18-year-old wicket-keeper batsman from Islamabad has made quite a start to his competitive career. Nazir was one of the players to watch out for at the recently-concluded U19 World Cup in South Africa, but had a disappointing tournament, aggregating 111 runs in four innings, with 62 of those runs coming in a single outing.
The England top-order batsman’s short international career may have blown more cold than hot so far, but his pristine record in T20s, where he averages 34.80 and strikes at 160.22, makes him one of the standout young talents who will grace the stage this year.
An U19 World Cup captain, Banton hauled Somerset to the 2019 One-Day Cup, turning in clutch performances in the knockouts, before taking the Vitality Blast by storm when he blasted a 51-ball hundred against Kent. The performances fetched him a two-year contract with Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League and make him one of the standout PSL 2020 young players.
Though a gem discovered by Lahore Qalandars during a PSL trial in 2017, it was at the Big Bash that Rauf truly announced his talents to the world, marking his tournament debut with a five-for and a hat-trick in his first four matches with the franchise.
The 19-year-old has had a tough initiation into international cricket, with Pakistan suffering a string of defeats in matches featuring Hasnain, in both white-ball formats. Hasnain was a part of the 2019 World Cup squad, which he made just eight months after his first-class debut, but returned without a single game to his credit. In the ones he has played, he has hardly given a good account of himself, leaking runs at 8.04 in T20Is and 7.39 in ODIs, without a bagful of wickets to show for.
Blessed with height, speed, and the ability to move the ball in the air and off the deck, Shaheen Shah Afridi has all the attributes that go into the making of a dream fast bowler, and little about his international career so far testify against that.
Afridi has since gone on to establish himself in all three formats. Still just 19, Afridi has already played a World Cup and has risen to the position of spearhead of Pakistan’s Test attack, doing full justice to his early promise.