With the third season of the Pakistan Super League to be played with an additional sixth team, the other five franchises were told by the PCB to retain 10 players – two each from the platinum, gold and diamond categories, three from silver and one emerging cricketer – and release the rest into a draft. The Multan Sultans will select 10 men from this set and submit it to the PCB on October 10. The other teams have announced the players they have retained and will get the opportunity to fill out the rest of their squad when the PSL draft happens later this month.
Lahore Qalandars
Retained: Sunil Narine (Platinum), Umar Akmal (Platinum), Brendon McCullum (Diamond & mentor), Fakhar Zaman (Diamond), Yasir Shah (Gold), Sohail Khan (Gold), Cameron Delport (Silver), Aamir Yamin (Silver), Bilawal Bhatti (Silver)
Released: Azhar Ali, Jason Roy, Chris Green, Sohail Tanvir, Zafar Gohar, Ghulam Mudassar, James Franklin, Grant Elliott, Usman Qadir, Dwayne Bravo
Trade: Brought in Sohail Khan from Karachi Kings in exchange for Mohammad Rizwan
Islamabad United
Retained: Andre Russell (Platinum), Misbah-ul-Haq (Platinum), Samuel Badree (Diamond), Mohammad Sami, (Diamond), Rumman Raees (Gold & ambassador), Shadab Khan (Gold), Iftikhar Ahmed (Silver), Amad Butt (Silver), Asif Ali (Silver)
Released: Sam Billings, Ben Duckett, Brad Haddin, Steven Finn, Mohammad Irfan, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Saeed Ajmal, Shane Watson, Zohaib Khan, Dwayne Smith, Rafatullah
Trade: Brought in Iftikhar Ahmed from Peshawar in exchange for their supplementary pick in second round of draft.
Karachi Kings
Retained: Shahid Afridi (Platinum), Mohammad Amir (Platinum), Imad Wasim (Diamond), Babar Azam (Diamond), Mohammad Rizwan (Gold), Ravi Bopara (Gold), Usman Shinwari (Silver), Usama Mir (Silver), Khurram Manzoor (Silver)
Released: Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Rahat Ali, Ryan McLaren, Kashif Bhatti, Shahzaib Hasan, Kieron Pollard, Mahela Jayawardena, Shoaib Malik
Trade: Brought in Mohammad Rizawan in exchange for Sohail Khan. Brought in Shahid Afridi in exchange for one of their gold and two of their silver picks in player draft.
Quetta Gladiators
Retained: Sarfraz Ahmed (Platinum), Kevin Pietersen (Platinum), Rilee Rossouw (Diamond), Mahmudullah (Diamond), Asad Shafiq (Gold), Mohammad Nawaz (Gold), Anwar Ali (Silver), Mir Hamza (Silver), Umer Amin (Silver)
Released: Rovman Powell, Ahmed Shahzad, Nathan McCullum, Tymal Mills, Thisara Perera, Saad Nasim, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar, Luke Wright, Moeen Ali, Carlos Brathwaite, Brad Hodge, Bismillah Khan, Sean Ervine, Rayad Emrit, Anamul Haque, Elton Chigumbura, David Willey, Noor Wali, Morne van Wyk, Mohammad Nabi
Peshawar Zalmi
Retained: Mohammad Hafeez (Platinum), Wahab Riaz (Platinum), Shakib al Hasan (Diamond), Kamran Akmal (Diamond), Darren Sammy (Gold & player/coach), Hasan Ali (Gold), Haris Sohail (Silver), Chris Jordan (Silver), Mohammad Asghar (Silver)
Released: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Andre Fletcher, Imran Khan, Junaid Khan, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Marlon Samuels, Tamim Iqbal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahzad Muhammad, Umair Masood, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Shahzad
Trade: Accepted Islamabad’s right to a supplementary pick in second round in exchange for Iftikhar Ahmed. And by giving up Shahid Afridi, Peshawar take from Islamabad’s quota one gold and two silver picks at the draft
Source: ESPN Crickinfo