The 2021 Pakistan Super League (branded as HBL PSL 6) was the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). It was scheduled to be the second PSL edition to be held entirely in Pakistan in February and March 2021, after the previous editions were held abroad due to security concerns regarding hosting of international cricketing events at home.
On 4 March 2021, the PCB suspended the tournament with 14 of the scheduled 30 group matches having been played after multiple cases of COVID-19 were recorded. In March, the PCB proposed to reschedule the remaining fixtures for June 2021 with all matches to be held in Karachi, however, on 4 May, all the teams asked the PCB to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because of a surge in COVID-19 cases in Pakistan.
On 20 May 2021, approval was granted to play the remaining matches of the PSL 6 in Abu Dhabi and the tournament restarted on 9 June. On 24 June 2021, Multan Sultans beat Peshawar Zalmi in the final, by 47 runs to win their first title.
Background The PSL was set up in 2015 and began in 2016 — meaning this was the sixth edition of the tournament. This was the third year of Habib Bank Limited's (HBL) sponsorship deal with the tournament. This was supposed to be the second season held entirely in Pakistan, owing to the security situation there in previous seasons which caused it to be held in the UAE. After the previous edition was postponed because of COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was expected to be held behind closed doors. However, the Pakistani government gave approval to host the tournament at 20% capacity. An extra 10% could also have been allowed in after the group stage, but was not when the tournament moved to the UAE. Speaking about crowds, PCB chairman Ehsan Mani said that he hoped if they could maintain tight protocols during the tournament, they could increase capacity later in the year for future tours of Pakistan. It was rumored that starting from this edition, the PSL would have a dedicated window in the ICC Future Tours Programme.
Squads
Islamabad United Karachi Kings Lahore Qalandars Multan Sultans Peshawar Zalmi Quetta Gladiators Shadab Khan (c)
Colin Munro Faheem Ashraf Hussain Talat Asif Ali Muhammad Musa Zafar Gohar Hasan Ali
Rohail Nazir
Iftikhar Ahmed Mohammad Wasim Ahmed Safi Abdullah
Akif Javed Fawad Ahmed
Ali Khan Zeeshan Zameer Imad Wasim (c) Babar Azam (vc) Mohammad Amir
Aamer Yamin Sharjeel Khan Waqas Maqsood Arshad Iqbal
Chadwick Walton
Danish Aziz Mohammad Ilyas Zeeshan Malik Qasim Akram Noor Ahmad Abbas Afridi Sohail Akhtar (c) Mohammad Hafeez Shaheen Afridi (vc) Fakhar Zaman
Haris Rauf Ben Dunk Dilbar Hussain Rashid Khan
Zeeshan Ashraf Agha Salman Muhammad Faizan Maaz Khan Muhammad Zaid
Ahmed Daniyal
Mohammad Rizwan (c)
Rilee Rossouw Sohail Tanvir Imran Tahir Khushdil Shah
Usman Qadir
Sohail Khan Sohaib Maqsood Shan Masood Sohaibullah
Shahnawaz Dahani Mohammad Umar Imran Khan Wahab Riaz (c) Shoaib Malik (vc) Kamran Akmal
Haider Ali David Miller
Sherfane Rutherford Amad Butt Umaid Asif
Imam-ul-Haq Mohammad Imran Mohammad Irfan Abrar Ahmed Mohammad Imran
Mohammad Amir Khan
Waqar Salamkheil Sarfaraz Ahmed (c)
Mohammad Hasnain Mohammad Nawaz (vc) Azam Khan Naseem Shah Zahid Mahmood
Usman Shinwari Cameron Delport
Abdul Nasir Saim Ayub Arish Ali Khan
Usman Khan Faf du Plessis Hasan Khan Additional players selected for the remaining matches Usman Khawaja (vc)
Muhammad Akhlaq Umar Amin Brandon King Martin Guptill Thisara Perera Najibullah Zadran
Mohammad Haris James Faulkner
Callum Ferguson Seekkuge Prasanna Tim David Sultan Ahmed Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Shimron Hetmyer Johnson Charles Muhammad Waseem Hammad Azam Asif Afridi Blessing Muzarabani Fabian Allen Rovman Powell Fidel Edwards Bismillah Khan Hazratullah Zazai Sameen Gul Khalid Usman Jonathan Wells Andre Russell Zahir Khan Jack Wildermuth Khurram Shahzad Jake Weatherald Zahoor Khan Note: Players that have been struck-through were unable to participate in the tournament.
On 9 January 2021, the PCB announced the retained players' list. The players draft took place on 10 January in Lahore. On 15 February, Mohammad Rizwan replaced Shan Masood as the captain of the Multan Sultans.
Later, a replacement draft was held, in which additional players were picked up to replace players unavailable due to COVID-19 pandemic, which also forced the rescheduling of the tournament. On 27 April, Colin Munro rejoined Islamabad United for the remaining matches. The final squads were confirmed by 22 May, when the Lahore Qalandars re-signed Rashid Khan after his replacement Shakib Al Hasan pulled out of the PSL.
Venues In June 2020, the PCB announced they planned to add Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar, as a fifth venue in this edition of the PSL. However, delays in the stadium's construction made it difficult to host the tournament's matches. The PCB planned to hold a few matches in Faisalabad and Hyderabad, as well. In addition, the Hayatabad Stadium was announced as a possible venue for some matches. In September 2020, the PCB confirmed that both the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar and Bugti Stadium in Quetta, could not host this season's matches. However, it was later decided that the tournament would be held only at Karachi and Lahore. After the tournament was moved to the UAE, the remaining matches took place at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.
Pakistan United Arab Emirates Karachi Abu DhabiNational StadiumSheikh Zayed Cricket StadiumCapacity: 32,000Capacity: 20,000
The stadiums were initially allowed to hold only 20% capacity per match; 7,500 in Karachi and 5,500 in Lahore; in view of COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Tickets were available only online via Pakistan's online ticketing platform Bookme.pk, from 11 February.
Match officials Umpires
Faisal Afridi Aleem Dar Michael Gough Zameer Haider Richard Illingworth Imran Javed Ahsan Raza Shozab Raza Rashid Riaz Asif Yaqoob
Referees Iftikhar Ahmed Mohammed Anees Muhammad Javed Roshan Mahanama Ali Naqvi
Marketing
The league was promoted on social media with the hashtags #MatchDikhao and #HBLPSL6, and the official anthem Groove Mera by Naseebo Lal, Aima Baig and Young Stunners.
For the first time, five more tracks were released on the cricket album called HBL PSL Taranay, and a pre-recorded virtual opening ceremony was held.
COVID-19 pandemic impact
The day before the tournament was due to start, Wahab Riaz and Daren Sammy, both of Peshawar Zalmi, were put in isolation after they met with team owner Javed Afridi, who was not part of the bubble. However, after they both received results of a negative COVID test, they were allowed to rejoin the team.
On 1 March, Fawad Ahmed of Islamabad United was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19, which led to the postponement of their match against Quetta Gladiators by one day. On 4 March, it was reported that three more players had tested positive, including Tom Banton and a support staff member. Later that day, it was announced that the tournament had been suspended after seven new cases were reported. Dr Sohail Saleem, Head of the Medical Panel, submitted his resignation to chairman Ehsan Mani following increasing criticism over the abrupt postponement of the tournament.
After the postponement, the PCB formed a two-member fact-finding committee to investigate the causes behind the bio-secure bubble breaches.
The PCB announced on 11 March that they were looking to reschedule the remaining fixtures for June 2021. A week later, they proposed the tournament would either start on either 2 or 6 June, finishing on 20 June with all matches to take place in Karachi.
On 11 April, the PCB announced the tournament's revised schedule with the competition due to restart on 1 June. On 4 May 2021, all the teams asked the PCB to move the remaining matches to the UAE because of an increase of COVID-19 in Pakistan.
The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) gave green light to the Pakistan Cricket Board for holding the remaining matches of the PSL 2021 in Abu Dhabi on 18 May. However, it was also reported that the Abu Dhabi government put forward a condition that all the participants needed to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Following this, the PCB and the team owners held a virtual meeting on 19 May to review all potential scenarios and unanimously agreed to wait until the close of business on 20 May (UAE time) regarding clarifications on certain requested exemptions before a final decision on the hosting of the remaining matches was made. In May 2021, the Pakistan Super League finally secured all exemptions and approvals required to conduct the remainder of the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi.
Another bubble breach took place after the resumption of the tournament, this time the day before the final. Haider Ali and Umaid Asif, both of Peshawar Zalmi, admitted that they had met people from outside their bubble and were suspended from competing in the final.
League stage
Format
Points table
Summary
League progression
Fixtures The PCB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament on 8 January 2021. The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in February and March.
Pakistan
United Arab Emirates
Summary
Week 1 In the opening game of PSL 2021, the Karachi Kings beat the Quetta Gladiators by 7 wickets. For Karachi, Joe Clarke scored 46 off 23 to help register their first win of the season. While in game two, Rashid Khan made his debut for the Lahore Qalandars, helping them to a 4 wicket win over Peshawar Zalmi. In game three, Lewis Gregory proved his worth to Islamabad United against the Multan Sultans. He scored 49 runs off 31 balls to give his team a 3 wicket win. The next day, Lahore were looking to continue their winning start against Quetta. They did this with half centuries from Mohammad Hafeez and Fakhar Zaman propelling them to a 9 wicket win. Tom Kohler-Cadmore helped himself to 53 to register Peshawar's first win of the season against Multan. James Vince earlier scored 84 to propel Multan to 194, but Cadmore and Imam-ul-Haq, who scored 48, gave Zalmi a 6 wicket win. In game six, Sharjeel Khan's 105 was not enough as Islamabad successfully chased down 197 to beat Karachi by 5 wickets. The next day, Multan got their first win of the season. Their captain Mohammad Rizwan led from the front scoring 76 to give Multan a 7 wicket win. On the same day, Peshawar chased down over 190 for the second time in a row to beat Quetta by 3 wickets.
Week 2
Babar Azam excelled in game nine, leading Karachi to a 7 wicket win over Multan. On the same day, Wahab Riaz took 4/17 to lead Peshawar to a 6 wicket win over Islamabad. In game 11, Lahore beat Karachi by 6 wickets despite Sharjeel Khan scoring 64. Islamabad United chased down 156 with 3 overs to spare in game twelve. This was largely down to Paul Stirling, who scored a half-century in the 6 wicket win. Babar Azam's 77 helped Karachi to a 6 wicket win over Peshawar in game 13. He was helped by Mohammad Nabi, who also scored a half-century to take them back to the top of the table. The last game before the tournament was suspended featured Quetta getting their first win of the season against Multan by 22 runs. This was the first time in the competition the team batting first won.
Week 3