PSL 7 Preview : Quetta Gladiators – Can the Lala effect be enough to win another title?
Many thanks to [MENTION=142432]Titan24[/MENTION] for this write up.
Since winning the tournament in 2019 Quetta Gladiators have had a pretty tough time in PSL. Questionable emerging picks for T20 format, bad combinations, player management and availability, as well as backups - all left a lot to be desired.
Lead by former Pakistan national team captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and coached by another former Pakistan captain and keeper Moin Khan Quetta have had its fair share of ups and downs during the last 6 editions.
On paper they have put up a decent squad. They will also have the power of Lala – Shahid Afridi – at their disposal as well. However, once again player availability in few matches might come back to disturb the flow a bit.
At the same time, it looks like the backups this time around are of better quality keeping in mind the combination they had last year. Other than that, Sarfaraz’s captaincy which has not been up to the usual standards set by himself in the last couple of years will again be tested and a lot will depend upon that.
Quetta has almost everything in the squad one can think of from batsmen, power, all-rounders, spinners of every type to both left and right arm pace but, a slight blemish might be lack of experience/leadership in bowling to back young express pacers in Mohammad Hasnain and Naseem Shah.
Sohail Tanvir is in his twilight years and his performances in the last year or so seem to show that. On the other hand James Faulkner who was sensational for Lahore Qalandars on slow surfaces of UAE might not find it as easy on the Pakistani surfaces and has never showed much spark with regards to being a leader of the bowling group.
Key Players: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Jason Roy, James Vince, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah
Strengths: All basis and varieties covered
Weakness: Not much experience/leadership in the bowling group.
Full Squad:
James Vince, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Jason Roy, James Faulkner, Umar Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Ben Duckett, Khurram Shehzad, Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Muhammad Ashar Qureshi, Noor Ahmad, Ahsan Ali, Luke Wood
Supplementary round: Ghulam Mudassar, Dan Lawrence
Partial replacements: Will Smeed, Ali Imran, Shimron Hetmyer