Peshawar Zalmi – perfect recipe for success

The team Peshawar Zalmi is owned by Javed Afridi and it is a part of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) since its first edition.

Afridi and the Haier Group bought the team for $16 million for 10 years period. Mohammad Akram is Bowling Coach and Director of Operations for Zalmi.

Darren Sammy is the head coach for the 2017 champions, while Hashim Amla is the batting coach and Saqlain Mushtaq is the spin bowling consultant of the team for the 2022 edition.

The Pakistan batting legend Inzamam-ul-Haq has been named as the president of the Zalmi franchise.

Past performance

The start of the inaugural season for Peshawar Zalmi went well as the team won six out of the eight matches in the group stage and qualified for the playoffs.

However, they couldn’t make it to the finals in the first season. They were impressive, to say the least, winning six out of 10 contests in the tournament. They ended up the competition at the third spot.

Moving on to the second season, Zalmi were on fire and they won six of the 10 matches played. They eventually defeated Quetta Gladiators by 58 runs in the all-important final to clinch the title for the first and till now the only time.

Their left-arm spinner Mohammad Asghar bagged three wickets for 16 runs in the game while captain Darren Sammy played a match-turning cameo of 33 runs.

The Yellow Storm then entered the third edition of the league as the defending champions. They once again looked in prime form and won seven of the 13 contests played. That run was enough for them to cement their spot in the final for the second successive season. However, that time around, they lost to Islamabad United by three wickets, courtesy some sublime hitting from Asif Ali.

Zalmi won the toss and elected to bat first. They set United a target of 149 runs which they achieved in the 17th over.

The Men-in-Yellow returned in even better shape in the next edition of the league. They finished the group stage at the top of the points table courtesy of their seven wins and three defeats in the round.

They entered the knockout stage as favourites to lift the trophy but they could not perform on the big occasion once again. It was their third final in a row. Quetta Gladiators were the opponents, who got the better of them. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s men defeated Zalmi by eight wickets and they ended up being runners up once again.

They had a quiet PSL 2020, where they could only make it to the playoffs. Though it was a decent performance, it looked like a subpar show keeping their consistency in view.

Under the leadership of Wahab Riaz, they contested in ten games, losing six of them and stood victorious in four.

However, they once again found their groove in the last season of the competitive tournament and ended up reaching the final.

They were once again impressive in the campaign, winning seven of their 13 games. In the big final, they were up against Multan Sultans, who had miraculously made it to this far in the tournament.

Sultans were on a roll and they carried the same momentum in the key contest as well, defeating Zalmi by a huge margin of 47 runs. Zalmi ended the tournament as a runner-up for the third time.

They were led by the left-arm pacer Riaz again and had the services of experienced Shoaib Malik, explosive Afghanistan batter Hazratullah Zazai, talented England’s bowler Saqib Mahmood and others who played crucial roles in their run for making it to the final.

For the upcoming edition, Peshawar Zalmi have retained captain Wahab, Haider Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sherfane Rutherford, Mehmood and Malik.

Meanwhile, the destructive opening batter Zazai was picked by Zalmi in the Platinum category.

The four-time finalists will be looking forward to overcoming the disappointment of last season’s loss in the final and wearing the PSL crown for the second time.

Strengths

Peshawar Zalmi seem to have an immensely promising squad for the PSL 7. Moreover, their positive attitude and track record make the side even more lethal for other teams in the campaign. They have a habit of playing the final of the tournament almost every season.

The former champions’ batting looks world-class. They have the veteran wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal at the top of the order, who is the second-highest run-getter in the history of PSL, just second to Karachi Kings’ Babar Azam.

The seasoned batter will be accompanied by Zazai, who has the capability of tearing apart any bowling line on his day. If he manages to stay on the crease for good six overs, he can snatch the game away from the opposition.

The left-handed batter has scored 1,988 runs in 70 T20s at a strike rate of 145.85. He has two tons and ten half-centuries against his name in the format, which tells a lot about his ability.

Moreover, Zalmi have the talented Haider Ali in their ranks. The 21-year-old is a natural stroke maker. If he gives himself some time on the crease and plays balls on their merit, he can be easily Zalmi’s pick of the batters. In his 72 T20s so far, he has contributed 1,574 runs at a strike rate of 139.04.

To balance out this madness at the top of the order, Zalmi has got the perfect man to calm the situation in the shape of Shoaib Malik.

The veteran allrounder is the third-highest run-getter in the format just behind West Indies’ duo of Chris Gayle and Andre Russell with 11,297 runs. He is the one who can perfectly time his innings and can win matches for the side single-handedly.

To complement Malik, the franchise have also signed Hussain Talat who is more than capable of stabilising the ship in the middle overs.

Zalmi also have Liam Livingstone, one of the most prized commodities all around the world in the 20-over format, however, he will be partially unavailable during the instalment.

Moreover, the Yellow Storm have a more than handy fast-bowling attack led by their captain Wahab. In their pace bowling arsenal, they have England’s Saqib Mahmood, young Arshad Iqbal and Sameen Gul, who are pretty impressive.

One weak link that Zalmi used to have in their lineup was a lack of quality spinner. Now, with the induction of the young leggie Usman Qadir, the problem will be largely resolved.

The son of the legendary leg-spinner Abdul Qadir has taken 65 wickets in as many matches at an economy rate of 7.44.

Weaknesses

Coming to the weaknesses, there is hardly any for Zalmi this time around.

But if you look closely, the 2017 champions are depending on Rutherford to be their finisher, however, he is currently playing the role of a middle-order batter in other cricket leagues as well which puts his full-time availability for the franchise in jeopardy.

Then there is Ben Cutting, who is currently playing in the Big Bash League, but he is not in the best of form right now. He is hardly seen getting the success that he did in the PSL 5 while playing for Quetta Gladiators.

Therefore, if his form continues in the same fashion, then Zalmi will have to look somewhere else to find someone who can hit some lusty blows down the order.

Players to watch out

Hazratullah Zazai

Hazrat Ullah Zazai, who made the highest individual score by an Afghan batter in a Twenty20 International, an unbeaten 162 runs off just 62 balls against Ireland, will open the innings for Peshawar Zalmi.

In the last edition, he scored 212 runs in just five innings with an average of 42.40 having a strike rate of 185.9.

Having hit 38 boundaries with 24 fours and 14 sixes in PSL, he is the one wicket for the opposition teams to get early if they want to stay in the contest.

Mohammad Amir Khan

Young right-arm pacer Mohammad Amir Khan has been picked by Zalmi for the third time now, which shows that the think tank has faith in him.

The 20-year-old fast-bowler, who has also represented the Pakistan U-19 team, was not impressive in 2020 and did not play a single game in the 2021 edition as well, but he’s likely to surprise the opposition teams in the upcoming season if he gets a go.

Sirajuddin

Sirajuddin is regarded as one of the most promising fast-bowlers. He was picked by Zalmi in the first round of the PSL draft.

The young lad recently clicked 90.5 in the trials hosted by Rashid Latif in Islamabad and can be a surprise package for other teams in the seventh edition.

Prediction

Peshawar Zalmi look solid on paper, they have all the ingredients to dominate the tournament and win the PSL once again.

This team is likely to make it to the playoffs easily. However, it will not be a surprise if they are knocked out in that round because every team have a couple of bad days in every tournament and if they peak early, they might have that dip in the latter stage of the tournament.

Schedule

Zalmi will play Quetta Gladiators in their first match of the PSL 7 on January 28 at the National Stadium Karachi.

Their last group stage match will be against Lahore Qalandars on February 21 at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

Squad:

Wahab Riaz (captain), Liam Livingstone, Shoaib Malik, Sherfane Rutherford, Haider Ali, Saqib Mahmood, Hussain Talat, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Qadir, Salman Irshad, Arshad Iqbal, Sameen Gul, Kamran Akmal, Sirajuddin, Mohammad Amir Khan, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Haris

Supplementary round: Mohammad Umer, Sohail Khan

Partial replacements: Matt Parkinson, Pat Brown

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