Hyderabad Kingsmen
Hyderabad Kingsmen will make their PSL debut against title defenders Lahore Qalandars at the Gaddafi Stadium on the opening night of the 11th edition. They are one of the two new entrants in the PSL and are owned by an American-Pakistani businessman, Fawad Sarwar, who also owns Chicago Kingsmen, a minor league team in the USA. He recently bought the Jamaica-based franchise in the CPL.
The core of Chicago Kingsmen in Sharjeel Khan, Hassan Khan, Shayan Jahangir, Saad Ali and Hammad Azam stacks the Hyderabad Kingsmen line-up, which also includes three Australians in their captain Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell and Riley Meredith. They signed Saim Ayub for a record PKR 126 million (US$ 450,000 approx.), making him the most expensive local player this season. Two former Pakistan head coaches Jason Gillespie (head coach) and Grant Bradburn (fielding coach) are part of their coaching staff.
Strengths
- From openers to the middle order, they have the firepower to set and surmount towering scores as Ayub, Sharjeel, Maaz Sadaqat, Kusal Perera, Usman Khan, Maxwell, and Irfan Khan form a formidable batting line-up.
- They have a well-rounded spin attack, which covers almost the entire range of spin-bowling techniques. Maxwell (offspin), Ayub (offspin and legspin), and Hassan (left-arm orthodox) bring heaps of experience gathered over leagues and international cricket and Sadaqat (left-arm orthodox) and Ahmed Hussain (legspin) supplement them.
Weaknesses
- The withdrawal of Ottneil Baartman has left their fast bowling short of experience. Meredith, the only overseas specialist fast bowler, enters the PSL on the back of an ordinary BBL in which he took 14 wickets in 12 games at an economy rate of 9.57. The other fast bowlers in the squad are Mohammad Ali, Hunain Shah, and Akif Javed. Among them, only Ali has played T20 cricket at international level and has a solitary wicket to show from three matches.
- Their decision to spend PKR 58.8 million (US$ 211,000) on Labuschagne raised eyebrows. He has played only four T20s since the start of 2025 and has never captained a T20 side. The only overseas T20 league experience he possesses is from the Vitality Blast, where his last match was in 2024. Labuschagne had a rough 2025 as he struggled for runs in Tests and ODIs. He has only two runs from his solitary T20I appearance, which was at the Gaddafi Stadium in 2022. Their campaign could be affected by Labuschagne's lack of runs and captaincy experience.
Lahore Qalandars
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They stared at another group-stage exit last season - losing three of their first five matches - but staged an epic comeback to win six of their last seven completed games to become the champions for the third time. Qalandars have now won three of the last four seasons. It makes for an incredible turn of events as they had finished the first four seasons at the bottom. That the final and last two of the three playoffs have been scheduled at the Gaddafi Stadium augurs well for them as they have won seven out of nine such matches at this venue.
Qalandars go into this season with the core they have developed over the years. They retained Shaheen Shah Afridi, their captain, Abdullah Shafique, Sikandar Raza, and Mohammad Naeem, and bought Fakhar Zaman and Haris Rauf at the auction.
Best result: Champions (2022, 2023, 2025)
2025 finish: Champions
2025 finish: Champions
Strengths
- Lahore have developed a reputation for fielding the best fast-bowling attacks and this season will be no different. They already have Pakistan's two best T20 pace bowlers in Afridi and Rauf, and have further fortified their stocks by adding Mustafizur Rahman (direct signing), Ubaid Shah, and Dasun Shanaka. All five are capable of bowling across phases.
- Raza played an outsized role in their last year's success. He famously landed in Lahore ten minutes before the toss of the final and went on to finish the game for them. He averaged over 42 with the bat and a shade above 17 with the ball in 11 matches and provides them a genuine all-round option in a player who not only provides crucial power-hitting down the order, but also can bowl his full quota of overs.
Weakness
- They can be a boom-or-bust side, underscored by the 2024 season when they had a solitary win after winning the previous two seasons. They made it to the final in 2020 but on either side of that, they finished last (2019) and second last (2021).
- Their batters look undercooked as a majority of them are coming off a woeful National T20 Cup. Naeem, Tayyab Tahir, and Asif Ali scored less than legspinner Usama Mir, who made 86 in three innings and will debut for Qalandars this season. Hussain Talat's last four innings across ODIs and the Bangladesh Premier League have fetched him single-digit scores, and Zaman has batted only three times in the last one month.