A depleted Quetta Gladiators’ time and an out-of-form Lahore Qalandars will face each other in the National Bank Arena, Karachi tonight.
Quetta Gladiators will be without their star middle order batter Sherfane Rutherford as he went back home due to personal commitments and also one of their best spinners Usman Tariq who got reported in the PSL due to his suspicious bowling action.
The absence of Wasim Jr and Sarfraz Ahmed in the last to match has been quite surprising, Sarfraz has been out of form throughout the season and Wasim Jr has been expensive with the ball with couple of good performances here and there, early on in the season.
But it seems like Quetta is right now struggling with its playing XI combination and they seem in tatters with half of the squad out of form and key players leaving.
Inclusion of Umar Amin or Omair Bin Yousuf will be likely in place of Sherfane Ruthford but none of them have the X factor like the west Indian left hander.
Lahore Qalandars on the other side will look to give Mirza Tahir Baig another chance after the departure of Rassie Van Der Dussen but in the middle order as Sahibzada Farhan is likely to come back in the playing XI after last night.
The two-time champions will have to drop one of Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti or Tayyab Abbas to include both the batters in the playing XI.
Qalandars have nothing to lose and this is a chance for Pakistan’s T20 Captain, Shaheen to bow out with pride ahead of the T20 World cup in June, a win under his belt will be good for his confidence.
Pitch Report
The National Bank Arena pitch has been favorable towards bowlers this season in the PSL. The slowness of the pitch has helped spinners and medium pacers whenever they have used variations, flight, and the correct line and length. The pitch provides a good battle between the bat and the ball. The par score on this surface is 170 so the team bowling first can have the advantage.
Head-To-Head Record
You can check out the full PSL schedule here
| Team | Matches | Win | Loss |
| Quetta Gladiators | 17 | 8 | 9 |
| Lahore Qalandars | 17 | 9 | 8 |
Expected Playing XIs
Check out the PSL 9 squads here
Lahore Qalandars:
| Sahibzada Farhan | Mirza Tahir Baig | Shai Hope (wk) | Jahandad Khan | Shaheen Afridi (c) | Tayyab Abbas |
| Fakhar Zaman | Abdullah Shafique | Sikandar Raza | David Wiese | Zaman Khan |
Quetta Gladiators:
| Jason Roy | Rilee Rossouw (C) | Umar Amin | Â Akeal Hossein | M. Wasim Jr. | M. Hasnain |
| Saud Shakeel | Sarfraz Ahmed (WK) | Khawaja Nafay | M. Amir | Abrar Ahmed |
Check out the PSL 9 Points Table here.
