# 2018 Pakistan Super League players draft

The 2018 Pakistan Super League player draft was the player draft for third season of the Pakistan Super League, held on 12 November 2017 in Lahore. Each franchise was allowed to pick 16 players from total 501 players; including Pakistani and foreign cricketers who took part in the draft. They divided into five different categories; Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging and Supplementary. This was Multan Sultans' inaugural season, they were allowed to pick 9 players prior to the draft.

## Retained players

The list for the names of 9 retained players in each five teams was announced on 5 October 2017. The new team Multan Sultans picked their 9 pre-draft players from the players released by other franchises, and their names were announced on 10 October.
| Class | Islamabad United | Karachi Kings | Lahore Qalandars | Multan Sultans | Peshawar Zalmi | Quetta Gladiators |
| Platinum | Andre Russell Misbah-ul-Haq | Shahid Afridi Mohammad Amir | Sunil Narine Umar Akmal | Shoaib Malik Kieron Pollard | Mohammad Hafeez Wahab Riaz | Sarfraz Ahmed Kevin Pietersen |
| Diamond | Samuel Badree Mohammad Sami | Imad Wasim Babar Azam | Brendon McCullum Fakhar Zaman | Kumar Sangakkara Sohail Tanvir | Shakib Al Hasan Kamran Akmal | Rilee Rossouw Mahmudullah |
| Gold | Rumman Raees Shadab Khan | Mohammad Rizwan Ravi Bopara | Yasir Shah Sohail Khan | Mohammad Irfan Junaid Khan | Darren Sammy Hasan Ali | Asad Shafiq Mohammad Nawaz |
| Silver | Iftikhar Ahmed Amad Butt Asif Ali | Usman Khan Usama Mir Khurram Manzoor | Cameron Delport Aamer Yamin Bilawal Bhatti | Kashif Bhatti Irfan Khan Sohaib Maqsood | Haris Sohail Chris Jordan Mohammad Asghar | Anwar Ali Mir Hamza Umar Amin |
| Emerging | Hussain Talat | | Ghulam Mudassar | | | |

## Transfers

On 3 October 2017, Shahid Afridi's transfer from Zalmi to Kings was confirmed, occupying one Gold and two Silver picks, which was named as the biggest trade of the season. It was also announced on 5 October that the gold pick Mohammad Rizwan had been picked by Kings in trade for the gold pick Sohail Khan to Qalandars. On 6 October, it was reported that United bought Iftikhar Ahmed from Zalmi in exchange of supplementary pick in second round of draft.

## Players released

Further players; who played in 2017 PSL, were released by their franchises, who are:
| Islamabad United | Karachi Kings | Lahore Qalandars | Peshawar Zalmi | Quetta Gladiators |
| 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 Mohmand | Kumar Sangakkara Chris Gayle Rahat Ali Ryan McLaren Kashif Bhatti Shahzaib Hasan Kieron Pollard Mahela Jayawardene Shoaib Malik | Azhar Ali Jason Roy Chris Green Sohail Tanvir Zafar Gohar James Franklin Grant Elliott Usman Qadir Dwayne Bravo | Dawid Malan Tillakaratne Dilshan Andre Fletcher Imran Khan Junaid Khan Eoin Morgan Samit Patel Marlon Samuels Tamim Iqbal Sohaib Maqsood Mohammad Shahzad Irfan Khan Khushdil Shah | Ahmed Shehzad Nathan McCullum Tymal Mills Thisara Perera Saad Nasim Umar Gul Zulfiqar Babar Luke Wright Carlos Brathwaite Brad Hodge Bismillah Khan David Willey Noor Wali Mohammad Nabi |

## New players

On 30 September, Chairman PCB Najam Sethi announced that following players are the new top signings for the league:
* JP Duminy
* Chris Lynn
* Mitchell Johnson
* Angelo Mathews
* Rashid Khan
* Evin Lewis
* Imran Tahir
* John Hastings
* Mustafizur Rahman
* Mitchell McClenaghan
* Colin Munro
* Luke Ronchi
* Colin Ingram
* Darren Bravo
* Lendl Simmons
On 14 October, some more names for the new signed in players were revealed:
* Tim Bresnan
* Adil Rashid
* James Vince
* Colin de Grandhomme
* Albie Morkel
* Wayne Parnell
* Jason Holder
It was reported on 20 October that the two players from the China national cricket team were signed in by franchise Zalmi:
* Li Jian
* Zhang Yufei

## Draft picks

A total of 501 players; 193 Pakistani and 308 overseas were a part of the draft. Earlier, each franchise had a purse of US$1.2 million, but then PCB decided to increase the salary cap of each franchise by US$25,000 on 13 November. They were allowed to stack up their squad with a maximum of 21 players by picking them from the categories in following order with a varying range and limit in price:
* one player each from:
** Platinum; US$140,000–230,000
** Diamond; minimum price of US$70,000–85,000
** Gold; US$50,000–60,000
* two players each from:
** Silver; US$22,000–33,000
** Emerging; US$10,000–12,000
* up to five players from Supplementary Rounds; they could be called in as replacements for those players who don't agree to play in Pakistan
Following players were picked by the franchises in the draft:
| Class | Islamabad United | Karachi Kings | Lahore Qalandars | Multan Sultans | Peshawar Zalmi | Quetta Gladiators |
| Platinum | JP Duminy | Colin Ingram | Chris Lynn | Imran Tahir | Dwayne Bravo | Shane Watson |
| Diamond | Luke Ronchi | Mitchell Johnson | Mustafizur Rahman | Darren Bravo | Tamim Iqbal | Carlos Brathwaite |
| Gold | Faheem Ashraf | Luke Wright | Bilal Asif | Ahmed Shehzad | Hammad Azam | Rahat Ali |
| Silver Round 1 | Sam Billings | David Wiese | Raza Hasan | Mohammad Abbas | Saad Nasim | Rameez Raja |
| Silver Round 2 | Zafar Gohar | Tabish Khan | Sohail Akhtar | Nicholas Pooran | Taimur Sultan | Saad Ali |
| Emerging Round 1 | | Mohammad Irfan | | Abdullah Shafique | Sameen Gul | Saud Shakeel |
| Emerging Round 2 | Sahibzada Farhan | Hasan Mohsin | Shaheen Afridi | Saif Badar | Ibtisam Sheikh | Hasan Khan |
| Round 1 | Alex Hales | Colin Munro | Angelo Mathews | Hardus Viljoen | Andre Fletcher | Jason Roy |
| Round 2 | David Willey | Eoin Morgan | Mitchell McClenaghan | Umar Gul | Evin Lewis | Rashid Khan |
| Round 3 | Mohammad Hasan | Saifullah Bangash | Gulraiz Sadaf | Umar Siddiq | Khalid Usman | Azam Khan |
| Round 4 | Mohammad Hasnain | Mohammad Taha | Imran Khan | Ross Whiteley | Mohammad Arif | Faraz Ahmed |
| Round 5 | Rohail Nazir | Mushtaq Ahmed Kalhoro | Salman Irshad | Shan Masood | Khushdil Shah | Mohammad Junaid |

## Replacements

Following players were picked in PSL replacement draft.
| Player | Team | Replaced with | Notes |
| Carlos Brathwaite | Quetta Gladiators | Jofra Archer | unavailable due to national duties |
| Mahmudullah | Quetta Gladiators | John Hastings | unavailable due to national duties |
| Mitchell Johnson | Karachi Kings | Tymal Mills | withdrawn (personal reason) |
| Luke Wright | Karachi Kings | Joe Denly | withdrawn (fitness issues) |
| Colin Munro | Karachi Kings | Lendl Simmons | Domestic commitments |
| Angelo Mathews | Lahore Qalandars | Anton Devcich | Injured |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Peshawar Zalmi | Sabbir Rahman | Injured |
| Chris Lynn | Lahore Qalandars | Kyle Abbott | Injured |