2020 Pakistan Super League (also known as PSL 5 or for sponsorship reasons as HBL PSL 2020) was the fifth season of the

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

, a franchise

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

league which was established by the

Pakistan Cricket Board The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan national cricket team. A member of the International Cricket Coun ...

(PCB) in 2015. It started on 20 February 2020. The league was held entirely in Pakistan for the first time.

Karachi Kings Karachi Kings ( ur, ; sd, ڪراچي ڪنگز) (abbreviated as KK) is a Pakistani professional franchise Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The team is based in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, P ...

won their first title after defeating

Lahore Qalandars Lahore Qalandars ( ur, ; pnb, لہور قلندرز; abbreviated as LQ) is a Pakistani professional cricket franchise which plays in the Pakistan Super League, representing the city of Lahore. The home ground of the team is Gaddafi Stadium. ...

by five wickets in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. The playoff stage of the tournament was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In late March 2020, the PCB were looking at whether to declare the winner of the tournament based on the league standings, or to play the matches at a later date. On 2 July 2020, the PCB announced that they plan to complete the season in November 2020. On 2 September 2020, the PCB confirmed the fixtures for the remaining matches.

Background

In February 2019, the

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Paki ...

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

, announced that the fifth season of the tournament will be held entirely in Pakistan. In March 2019,

Ehsan Mani Ehsan Mani (Urdu: ; born 23 March 1945) is a Pakistani chartered accountant who is the former president of International Cricket Council (ICC) and former Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Early life Mani was born in Rawalpindi Pakistan in ...

, Chairman of

also expressed the desire to host all the matches of this season in Pakistan. On 1 January 2020, PCB announced fixtures for the tournament confirming that the entire tournament will take place in Pakistan.

Teams and squads

The players draft took place on 6 December, with the first round taking place on 3 November 2019. Ahead of the draft, each team was allowed to retain up to eight players from their previous squad. On 1 December 2019, PCB announced the retention players list with all six teams retaining a total of 45 players from the previous season. Ahead of the play-offs, teams included new players in their squad as

Faf du Plessis Francois "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and is among the best all-forma ...

, Khurram Shehzad and Hardus Viljoen replaced Kieron Pollard,

Mohammad Amir Khan Mohammad Amir Khan (born 29 December 1993) is an Indian field hockey player who plays as a forward. He represented India at the 2009 Men's Hockey Junior World Cup The 2009 Hockey Junior World Cup was the ninth tournament of the Hockey Junio ...

and

Liam Dawson Liam Andrew Dawson (born 1 March 1990) is an English cricketer who plays for Hampshire and for the England cricket team. He is a right-handed batsman who bowls slow left-arm orthodox spin. He made his international debut for England in July 201 ...

respectively, in Peshawar Zalmi squad. In Multan Sultans squad Mahmudullah and

Adam Lyth Adam Lyth (born 25 September 1987) is an English Test cricketer, who has played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club since 2007. He is a left-handed opening batsman. Career Domestic career Born 25 September 1987, Whitby, North Yorkshire, Lyth ma ...

replaced Moeen Ali and

Fabian Allen Fabian Allen (born 7 May 1995) is a Jamaican cricketer. He made his first-class debut for Jamaica in the 2016–17 Regional Four Day Competition on 25 November 2016. Prior to his first-class debut, he was part of the West Indies squad for the ...

respectively.

replaced Chris Lynn,

Salman Butt Salman Butt (, born 7 October 1984) is a former Pakistani cricketer and captain who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2003 and 2010, before getting banned for five years for his involvement in 2010 spot-fixing scandal. He had ...

and Seekkuge Prasanna with Tamim Iqbal, Abid Ali and Agha Salman respectively. While,

replaced Chris Jordan and Ali Khan with

Sherfane Rutherford Sherfane Eviston Rutherford (born 15 August 1998) is a Guyanese cricketer. He made his international debut for the West Indies in December 2018. Domestic and T20 career Rutherford made his first-class debut for Guyana in the 2016–17 Regional ...

and

Waqas Maqsood Waqas Maqsood (born 4 November 1987) is a Pakistani cricketer who plays for Central Punjab. He made his T20I debut for the Pakistan cricket team in November 2018. Domestic career In December 2017, he took his best figures in an innings in a fir ...

. On 7 November 2020, Peshawar Zalmi replaced England's Liam Livingstone with his national side teammate

Saqib Mahmood Saqib Mahmood (born 25 February 1997) is an English cricketer who plays for England and Lancashire. Primarily he is a right-arm fast bowler. He made his international Twenty20 debut for England in November 2019, with his Test debut in March 20 ...

after he was included in the national team against South Africa. On 8 November, Multan Sultans's squad members Mahmudullah tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

making him unable to take part in the tournament and was replaced by Brendan Taylor, and

James Vince James Michael Vince (born 14 March 1991) is an English cricketer who is the captain for Hampshire County Cricket Club and plays for the England cricket team. Vince was part of the England squad that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup. He is a right ...

was replaced by

Joe Denly Joseph Liam Denly (born 16 March 1986) is an English professional cricketer who plays for Kent County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional leg break bowler who plays as a top-order batsman. Denly played age group cricket f ...

after he also tested positive for COVID-19. Kings'

Mitchell McClenaghan Mitchell John McClenaghan (born 11 June 1986) is a New Zealand international cricketer who plays limited over internationals for New Zealand. Domestically, he plays for Otago in New Zealand. McClenaghan is a left-arm medium-fast bowler. He i ...

and Zalmi's

Daren Sammy Daren Julius Garvey Sammy (born 20 December 1983) is a Saint Lucian cricketer who played international cricket for the West Indies. He is a two time T20 World Cup winning captain. On making his One-Day International (ODI) debut against Bangla ...

were replaced by

Wayne Parnell Wayne Dillon Parnell (born 30 July 1989) is a South African professional cricketer who most recently played for Northamptonshire in English county cricket. Previously, Parnell played Test cricket, One Day International cricket and Twenty20 matc ...

and

Sohaib Maqsood Sohaib Maqsood ( Punjabi, ur, ; born 15 April 1987) is a Pakistani cricketer. Due to his aggressive batting style and his 6’2'’ stature he's often compared to former Pakistan captain and batsman and fellow Multan native Inzamam-ul-Haq. ...

respectively. Few days later, Hasan Ali of Peshawar Zalmi was ruled out of the tournament due to back-strain and was replaced by Mohammad Imran, and in Lahore Qalandars squad,

Salman Irshad Salman Irshad Khan (Urdu: ) (born 3 December 1995 in Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir), known as Salman Irshad, is a Pakistani cricketer who plays for Northern cricket team and Peshawar Zalmi. Domestic career Irshad made his debut for AJK Jaguars a ...

replaced Agha Salman who suffered an ankle injury.

Venues

The tournament took place entirely in Pakistan. Total 34 matches were played in four venues

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

and

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

. The opening ceremony took place in Karachi. The playoffs were scheduled to take place in Lahore in November 2020, after being postponed for 8 months due to COVID-19 pandemic but were later shifted to Karachi.

Match officials

Umpires

Faisal Afridi Faisal Afridi (born 31 December 1977) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former cricketer. He played 53 first-class and 35 List A matches between 1998 and 2008. He is now an umpire and stood in the match between National Bank of Pakistan and Wat ...

Aslam Bareach Mohammad Aslam Khan Bareach (born 26 January 1976) is a Pakistani umpire (cricket), cricket umpire. He has stood as an umpire in 24 first-class cricket, first-class, 13 List A cricket, List A one-day and eight Twenty20 matches between 2014– ...

* Aleem Dar *

Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...

* Majid Hussain * Nasir Hussain * Richard Illingworth * Imtiaz Iqbal * Saqib Khan *

Ranmore Martinesz Ranmore Etholson John Martinesz (born 24 June 1967 in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan umpire and a former first-class cricketer. Martinesz played first-class cricket for the Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic Club. His career was short, with him makin ...

Tariq Rasheed Tariq Rasheed (born 10 March 1978) is a Pakistani former cricketer. He played in twenty first-class and twenty-two List A matches between 1996 and 2004. He is now an umpire, and stood in the match between Federally Administered Tribal Areas and ...

Ahsan Raza Ahsan Raza (born 29 May 1974 in Lahore, Pakistan) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former cricketer. In November 2020, in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, he stood in his 50th T20I match as an on-field um ...

Shozab Raza Shozab Raza (Urdu: شوزيب رضا) is Pakistani cricket umpire. Career Raza made his debut as an umpire in 2012 when he supervised a One Day International (ODI) match played between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Sharjah Cricket Association ...

Rashid Riaz Rashid Riaz (born 27 February 1976) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer. He is now an umpire and has stood in matches in the 2015–16 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. He stood in his first Twenty20 International (T20I) match betwe ...

Asif Yaqoob Asif Yaqoob (born 11 November 1973) is a Pakistani cricket umpire. He has officiated in Pakistan Super League. He stood in his first Twenty20 International (T20I) match, between Pakistan and Australia on 26 October 2018. He stood in his first ...

Referees

* Mohammad Anees * Muhammad Javed * Roshan Mahanama * Aziz-ur-Rehman

Promotion in media

The league was promoted on social media by the hashtag #HBLPSLV and anthem titled #

TayyarHain Tayyar Hain (; ) was the official anthem of the 2020 Pakistan Super League, the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League. It has been written by Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan (Xulfi), and sung by Ali Azmat, Haroon, Asim Azhar and Arif Lohar. It was ...

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 20 February 2020 at National Stadium, Karachi, prior to the first match of the season. The show began with the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

, before a group of drummers and trumpeters performed an instrumental version of the official PSL 2020 anthem. Later, the first performance of the night was a Sufi medley featuring singer

Sanam Marvi Sanam Marvi ( sd, ) (born : 17 April 1986) is a Pakistani folk and sufi singer. She sings in Sindhi, Punjabi, and Balochi languages.Fareed Ayaz Ghulam Fariduddin Ayaz Al-Hussaini Qawwal (born in Hyderabad, India) is a Pakistani Sufi devotional singer. He belongs to the ''Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana'' of Delhi. He and his relatives are the flag-bearers of that school of music (gharana ...

and Abu Mohammad, and the band Soch. This was followed by

Sajjad Ali Sajjad Ali (born 1962) is a Pakistani semi-classical, pop and rock singer, poet, actor, film director as well as a film producer from Karachi, Pakistan.Aima Baig, Abrar-ul-Haq and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan taking the stage one after another to perform their songs. The ceremony concluded with Ali Azmat, Arif Lohar,

Haroon Harun, also transliterated as Haroon or Haroun ( ar, هارون, ) is a common male given name of Arabic origin, related to the Hebrew name of the Prophet Aaron. Both are most likely of Ancient Egyptian origin, from ''aha rw'', meaning "warrior li ...

and

Asim Azhar Asim Azhar (; born 29 October 1996) is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, musician and an actor. He started his career as a singer on YouTube, covering contemporary Western songs before he became a public figure. Career Asim Azhar was born o ...

performing the PSL 2020 anthem

Tayyar Hain Tayyar Hain (; ) was the official anthem of the 2020 Pakistan Super League, the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League. It has been written by Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan (Xulfi), and sung by Ali Azmat, Haroon, Asim Azhar and Arif Lohar. It was ...

, accompanied by a fireworks display in the background.

Commentators

HD Ackerman Hylton Deon Ackerman, also known as HD Ackerman, (born 14 February 1973) is a South African cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer. He commentates for Supersport. He is currently also the head coach of the First XI and director at Gui ...

Mark Butcher Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

* Dominic Cork *

Bazid Khan Bazid Khan (born 25 March 1981) is a Pakistani cricket commentator and former cricketer. In the 2021 edition of ''Wisden Cricketer's Almanack'', he was named as the Schools Cricketer of the Year for his performances between 1998 and 2000. Earl ...

* Danny Morrison *

Urooj Mumtaz Urooj Mumtaz Khan ( ur, عروج ممتاز) (born 1 October 1985) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, television host, dentist, and former cricketer. She played as an all-rounder, bowling right-arm leg break and batting right-handed. She appear ...

* Kass Naidoo * Dirk Nannes *

Rameez Raja Ramiz Hasan Raja ( ur, ; born 14 August 1962) is a Pakistani cricket administrator, commentator, YouTuber, and former cricketer who served as the 35th Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board between September 2021 and December 2022. As a pla ...

Jonty Rhodes Jonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes (born 27 July 1969) is a South African professional cricket commentator and former Test and One Day International cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time and was the first South African ...

* Michael Slater * Alan Wilkins * Waqar Younis * Tariq Saeed

Experts

Grant Elliott Grant David Elliott (born 21 March 1979) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played all formats of the game. Primarily a batting all-rounder, Elliott contributed a man of the match performance to provide entrance to New Zealand's first ever ...

* Azhar Ali *

Sana Mir Sana Mir (born 5 January 1986) is a Pakistani cricket commentator and former cricketer who served as a captain of the Pakistan national women's cricket team in ODIs and T20Is. She played in 226 international matches, including 137 of those as ca ...

Presenters

Zainab Abbas Zainab Abbas ( Punjabi, ; born 14 February 1988) is a Pakistani television host, sports presenter, commentator, and former makeup artist. Personal life Zainab Abbas was born in Lahore to domestic cricketer Nasir Abbas and politician Andleeb A ...

Fakhar-e-Alam Fakhar-e-Alam ( Punjabi, ur, فخر عالم; born 19 January 1976) is a Pakistani actor, TV host, video jockey, and singer, famous for introducing the bhangra-rap fusion genre of music in Pakistan. Though he is still considered a pioneer of ...

Erin Holland Erin Victoria Holland (born 21 March 1989) is an Australian singer, television host, sports presenter, model, dancer, and charity worker. She won her national title, Miss World Australia, on 20 July 2013. She has also featured as a sports prese ...

Cancer awareness

The childhood cancer awareness day and the breast cancer awareness day were observed on 22 February and 7 March respectively, with the stadiums themed as gold and pink respectively.

COVID-19 pandemic impact

The later part of the tournament was affected by

. The matches were reduced from 34 to 33 and the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

were replaced by knockouts thus shortening the tournament by 4 days. The final was rescheduled from 22 March to 18 March. The matches from 13 March were announced to take place behind closed doors. As many as eighteen players were confirmed to not take part in any future matches after the increased cases of

in Pakistan as well as in the rest of the world, and also to avoid being stranded from their home countries due to border closures, as was the case for New Zealanders Colin Munro,

Luke Ronchi Luke Ronchi ( ; born 23 April 1981) is a New Zealand-Australian cricket coach and a former cricketer. He represented both the Australia national cricket team and New Zealand national cricket team in international cricket. Ronchi is the only play ...

, and

. On 17 March 2020, it was announced that the knockout stage is suspended after English cricketer

Alex Hales Alexander Daniel Hales (born 3 January 1989) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed opening batter who currently plays for Nottinghamshire and the England cricket team in white ball, limited overs formats. He made his One Day Internation ...

showed symptoms of the virus. Hales observed self-isolation on his return to England, whereas PCB released a statement saying that Hales was not the player suspected of coronavirus and instead refused to reveal the identity of the player suspected of having COVID-19.

League stage

Format

The six teams played 10 matches each and got 2 points for every win, none for a loss and 1 point for a no result. The top four team in the group stage were qualified for the play-offs.

Points table

Summary

League progression

Fixtures

The PCB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament on 1 January 2020. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Playoffs

On 2 September 2020, PCB announced the venue and dates for the remaining four matches, with Gaddafi Stadium hosting all four; matches will be held on 14 and 15, with the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

scheduled on 17 November. However, later the matches were shifted to National Stadium in

due to poor air quality in

Qualifier

Eliminators

Eliminator 1

Eliminator 2

Final

Awards and statistics

Most runs

Babar Azam Mohammad Babar Azam (Urdu, pa, ; born 15 October 1994), is a Pakistani international cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in all formats. Regarded as one of the finest batters in contemporary world cricket, he is the o ...

received the Green Cap.

Most wickets

* Shaheen Afridi of

received the Maroon Cap.

Notes

References

External links

*
Series home
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pakistan Super League 2020 in Pakistani cricket February 2020 sports events in Pakistan March 2020 sports events in Pakistan COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan Cricket events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic