For the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), teams were permitted to retain up to eight players from their previous roster. The category restrictions for retentions was a maximum of three Platinum, three Diamond, three Gold, five Silver and two emerging players. All six teams will go into the player draft on December 6 in Lahore to complete the rest of their squads from a pool of over 500 players.
The upcoming season starts on February 20 next year, and all 34 games will be played in Pakistan across four venues in the country. Some notable foreign players including Dale Steyn, Colin Munro, Alex Hales and Jason Roy, Chris Lynn and Ben Cutting have registered themselves to be drafted.
Quetta Gladiators
Retained (8 players): Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed (both Platinum), Shane Watson (Diamond, Player Mentor), Ahmed Shehzad (Diamond), Umar Akmal (Gold, Brand Ambassador), Mohammad Hasnain (Gold), Ahsan Ali, Naseem Shah (both Silver)
Released: Anwar Ali, Danish Aziz, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Fawad Ahmed, Ghulam Mudassar, Harry Gurney, Jalat Khan, Max Waller, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Azam Khan, Mohammad Irfan Jr, Rilee Rossouw, Saud Shakil, Sohail Tanvir
Trade: None
Relegation: None
Multan Sultans
Retained (7 players): Mohammad Irfan (Platinum), Shahid Afridi (Diamond, Player Mentor), James Vince (Gold, Brand Ambassador), Junaid Khan (Gold), Ali Shafiq, Shan Masood (both Silver), Mohammad Ilyas (Emerging)
Released: Andre Russell (not available in 2020), Chris Green, Dan Christian, Hammad Azam, Joe Denly, Johnson Charles, Laurie Evans, M. Irfan Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Junaid, Nicholas Pooran, Numan Ali, Qais Ahmed, Shakeel Ansar, Shoaib Malik, Steve Smith (not available in 2020), Tom Moores, Umar Siddiq
Trade: None
Relegation: Junaid Khan from Diamond to Gold, Shan Masood from Gold to Silver
Islamabad United
Retained (8 players): Shadab Khan (Platinum), Faheem Ashraf (Diamond, Brand Ambassador), Asif Ali (Diamond), Luke Ronchi (Gold, Player Mentor), Hussain Talat (Gold), Amad Butt, Musa Khan, Rizwan Hussain (all Silver)
Released: Alex Hales, Cameron Delport, Chadwick Walton, Ian Bell, Mohammad Sami, Nasir Nawaz, Philip Salt, Rumman Raees, Sahibzada Farhan, Samit Patel, Waqas Maqsood, Wayne Parnell, Zafar Gohar, Zahir Khan
Trade: None
Relegation: None
Peshawar Zalmi:
Retained (7 players): Hasan Ali, Kieron Pollard, Wahab Riaz (all Platinum), Kamran Akmal (Diamond, Brand Ambassador), Darren Sammy (Gold, Player Mentor), Imam-ul-Haq (Gold), Umar Amin (Silver)
Released: Andre Fletcher, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Ibtesam Sheikh, Jamal Anwar, Khalid Usman, Lendl Simmons, Liam Dawson, Misbah-ul-Haq (not available in 2020), Nabi Gul, Sameen Gul, Samiullah, Sohaib Maqsood, Tymal Mills, Umaid Asif, Waqar Salamkheil, Wayne Madsen
Trade: None
Relegation: Imam ul Haq from Diamond to Gold, Umar Amin went from Gold to Silver
Karachi Kings
Retained (7 players): Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir (both Platinum), Imad Wasim (Diamond, Brand Ambassador), Iftikhar Ahmed (Diamond), Aamir Yamin (Gold), Usama Mir (Silver), Umer Khan (Emerging)
Released: Aaron Summers, Abrar Ahmed, Ali Imran, Awais Zia, Ben Dunk, Colin Ingram, Colin Munro, Jaahid Ali, Liam Livingstone, Mohammad Rizwan, Ravi Bopara, Sikander Raza, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari
Trade: Usman Shinwari released only to be transferred to Lahore Qalandars.
Relegation: None
Lahore Qalandars
Retained (8 players): Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez (both Platinum), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Diamond, Brand Ambassador), David Wiese, Usman Shinwari (both Diamond), Haris Rauf, Sohail Akhtar (both Gold), Salman Butt (Silver)
Released: AB de Villiers (not available in 2020), Agha Salman, Aizaz Cheema, Anton Devcich, Asela Gunaratne, Brendan Taylor, Carlos Brathwaite, Corey Anderson (not available in 2020), Gohar Ali, Hardus Viljoen, Haris Sohail, Hassan Khan, Mohammad Imran, Rahat Ali, Riki Wessels, Ryan ten Doeschate (not available in 2020), Saad Ali, Sandeep Lamichhane, Umair Masood, Yasir Shah
Trade: Usman Shinwari transferred from Karachi Kings
Relegation: Salman Butt from Gold to Silver
Source: ESPN Crickinfo