PSL 2023: Peshawar Zalmi appoints Babar Azam as captain

Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Peshawar Zalmi has appointed the national team captain Babar Azam as the franchise captain for the next edition of the league.

Babar Azam led Karachi Kings last year but this year Peshawar Zalmi traded him from Karachi Kings and hired Babar in exchange for Shoaib Malik as well as Haider Ali.

Babar Azam’s journey in the Pakistan Super League started with Islamabad United in 2016 but was dropped after two matches.

The following year, he represented Karachi Kings and was the highest run-scorer in the tournament at an average of 43.60 and so far he has scored 2413 runs in 68 matches.

Last year, under Babar’s leadership, the performance of the Karachi Kings team was extremely poor and the Blue Shirts had to face failure in 9 out of 10 matches due to this performance, their relationship with the franchise owners became strained and he decided to leave the franchise.

In the Pakistan Super League matches played in four cities of the country from February 9 to March 19, Karachi Kings will once again be led by Imad Wasim, who has performed these duties before.

Babar Azam’s new franchise, Peshawar Zalmi, is one of the most successful teams in the league, having won the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 finals, while reaching the eliminators in 2020 and 2022.


Last year, Peshawar Zalmi was led by Wahab Riaz, but as the performance of the most successful bowler of PSL dropped with each passing day, he was demoted from the platinum category to the diamond category this year.

While the 40-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has also been released from the squad.

In today’s PSL draft, Peshawar Zalmi will make eleven players part of its squad, including Mohammad Haris, along with Amir Jamal, Sherfane Eviston Rutherford, Salman Irshad and Tom Koehler Cadmore.