The problem with PSL is that there are only six franchises and with foreign players and the mandatory rule of one under 19 player playing in the final team, the opportunities get even more limited. Add to that the inherent nepotism in one team (Quetta) and the cluelessness of the other (Lahore), it leaves only four teams that may pick players based on data and statistics.
I'll do a rough tier list of players of the domestic setup who aren't playing regularly for Pakistan or haven't played at all. It doesn't mean that they will do good against international teams, it's just a rough ranking based on either potential or ability we can make a team out of them for T20 cricket.
S-tier: A rough list of quality Pakistani domestic players in our conditions. Have the potential to represent Pakistan but some of them aren't playing PSL or have played with limited roles out of their natural positions.
Tayyab Tahir. Abdullah Shafiq. Ali Imran. Sahibzada Farhan. Muhammad Ikhlaq. Kamran Ghulam. Amir Yamin. Hassan Khan. Asif Afridi. Naseem Shah. Rumman Raees. Qasim Akram. Sameen Gul. Arshad Iqbal. Akif Javed. Muhammad Ilyas.
A-tier: These are the players who are good and can even represent Pakistan but they are a tier below the players that are S-tier. They have attributes to be good but for one or the other reason, they aren't really consistent and just languish below the elite domestic talent.
Hussain Talat. Agha Salman. Umaid Asif. Zahid Mehmood. Imran Khan (Sr). Amad Butt. Umer Khan. Ahmed Shehzad (could be in TTF list as well but I still like that he's fit and trying)
Potential Tier: These are the players that require coaching and work on them but they have the raw ingredients that can help them jump to S-tier. Most of them have listed ages under 25 as a bonus to boot or offer something that is rare in our setup.
Nasir Nawaz. Amir Azmat. Faisal Akram. Muhammad Imran Randhawa. Sharoon Siraj. Muhammad Haris. Rohail Nazir. Abdul Wahid Bangalzai. Abrar Ahmed. Ali Majid. Nabi Gul. Saif Badar. Mubasir Khan. Amir Jamal. A few others who I can't remember off the top of my head.
There are certain players who I really liked at the early stages of their career but they haven't really evolved. Zia-ul-Haq & Ehsan Adil are prime examples of that when it comes to fast bowling. Dudes are still stringy, the pace hasn't increased, and the accuracy plus control are all over the place. Zafar Gohar is also someone who needs to actually improve a bit to sustain his career. Zeeshan Malik also is a batter who I thought would do well but he hasn't really lived up to his initial hype.
There are also certain players who should get cricketing education and move over to other cricketing roles. These are the ones who still manage into PSL teams and still have the ability to perform but they should move on. I'll not name them as we all know who these players are.
PSL franchises honestly need to hire proper recruiters so that they can create good teams instead of letting team owners and their friends decide how the teams should be. I also feel that we don't need 4 foreign players in each team, three would be the right amount or even two but we need to get the best of the best and not retired and washed-up players so that the overall quality of the league is improved. The emerging quota within each team should also be scrapped as it adds nothing and should be implemented in National T20. If you want youngsters to learn from elite players, make it mandatory for two of them to be part of each franchise but let's not force them into the team.
20 or so quality foreign players, well-balanced domestic talent, and the contingent of Pakistan international players will make PSL way more competitive than what it is at this moment. Just, for example, imagine a Lahore team like this without the Qalandars development program shoving Maaz Khan, Sohail Akhtar down our throats vs. Karachi
Qalandars:
Babar (c)
Roy (f)
Fakhar
Hafeez
Tim David (f)
Akhlaq (k)
Rashid Khan (f)
Nasim
Nawaz
Rauf
Shaheen
Kings:
Bairstow (f)
Sharjeel
Tim Seifert (k+f)
Livingstone (f)
Iftikhar
Danish Aziz
Imad (c)
Amir
Dahani
Raees
Zahid Mehmood
That's like a proper match and something that PSL should aim for instead of what we have now.
