Pakistan Super League 2022 Prediction: Lahore Qalanders to win PSL7

Sunday 5th December sees the return of the Pakistan Super League and our resident cricket guru @OddsTerrier has all the info you need for this exciting T20 competition from the sub-continent. We'll be regularly updating the page with info, odds and tips so bookmark it for all your PSL betting needs.

What is the Pakistan Super League?

2022 Pakistan Super League (also known as PSL 7, or for sponsorship reasons, HBL PSL 2022) will be the seventh season of the Pakistan Super League, the annual Twenty20 franchise cricket league that was started in 2015 by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

When does the competition take place and where can I watch it?

PSL7 runs from the 27th January right through to the final which is due to take place on the 27th February. All games will be shown live and exclusively in the UK by Sky Sports

What is the Format?

Six Franchise teams will play each other home and away, comprising 30 regular season matches, staged at two venues in Pakistan. They are listed below:

Lahore, Gaddafi Stadium 27,000 Capacity

Karachi, National Stadium 32,000 Capacity (8000 allowed)

The top four teams in the league phase will progress to the playoff stage. There is a heavy advantage in finishing higher up the league - a team finishing 3rd or 4th would have to win three extra matches to win the title whereas a team finishing 1st or 2nd can win it in just two. 

Who are the Franchises?

Islamabad United

Coach: Azhar Mahmood
Captain: Shadab Khan
Best Finish: Champions (2016, 2018)
Last Season: Third

Full Squad: Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Alex Hales, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Azam Khan, Paul Stirling, Colin Munro, Marchant de Lange, Muhammad Akhlaq, Reece Topley, Danish Aziz, Zafar Gohar, Mubasir Khan, M. Zeeshan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ather Mehmood

Supplementary draft: Musa Khan, Zahir Khan

Partial replacement: Mohammad Huraira

Karachi Kings

Coach: Peter Moores
Captain: Babar Azam
Best Finish: Champions (2020)
Last Season: Fourth

Full Squad: Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Amir, Joe Clarke, Sharjeel Khan, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Ilyas, Chris Jordan, Lewis Gregory, Umaid Asif, Tom Abell (injured, replaced by Ian Cockbain), Rohail Nazir, Muhammad Imran, Faisal Akram, Qasim Akram, Talha Ahsan, Romario Shepherd (unvailable, replaced by Tom Lammonby)

Supplementary round: Sahibzada Farhan, Jordan Thompson

Partial replacement: Mohammad Taha Khan

Lahore Qalandars

Coach: Aaqib Javed
Captain: Shaheen Shah Afridi
Best Finish: Runners-Up (2020)
Last Season: Fifth

Full squad: Shaheen Shah Afridi, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohail Akhtar, Zeeshan Ashraf, Ahmed Daniyal, Fakhar Zaman, Phil Salt, Harry Brook, Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Dean Foxcroft, Zaman Khan, Maaz Khan, Samit Patel, Syed Faridoun

Supplementary round: Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Akif Javed

Partial replacement: Ben Dunk, Matthew Potts

Multan Sultans

Coach: Andy Flower
Captain: Mohammad Rizwan
Best Finish: Champions (2021)
Last Season: Champions

Full squad: Mohammad Rizwan, Rilee Rossouw, Sohaib Maqsood, Imran Tahir, Shan Masood, Khushdil Shah, Shahnawaz Dhani, Tim David, Odean Smith, Rumman Raees, Asif Afridi, Anwar Ali, Rovman Powell, Imran Khan Sr., Abbas Afridi, Amir Azmat, Blessing Muzarabani, Ihsanullah

Supplementary round: David Willey, Rizwan Hussain

Partial replacements: Johnson Charles, Dominic Drakes

Peshawar Zalmi

Coach: James Foster
Captain: Wahab Riaz (stand-in to be announced as he is currently is isolation)
Best Finish: Champions (2017)
Last Season: Runners-Up

Full Squad: Wahab Riaz, Liam Livingstone, Shoaib Malik, Sherfane Rutherford, Haider Ali, Saqib Mahmood, Hussain Talat, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Qadir, Salman Irshad, Arshad Iqbal (Covid replacement: Ammad Butt), Sameen Gul, Kamran Akmal (Covid replacement: Imam-ul-Haq), Sirajuddin, Mohammad Amir Khan, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Haris

Supplementary round: Mohammad Umer, Sohail Khan

Partial replacements: Matt Parkinson, Pat Brown

Quetta Gladiators

Coach: Moin Khan
Captain: Sarfaraz Ahmed
Best Finish: Champions (2019)
Last Season: Sixth

Full squad: James Vince, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Jason Roy, James Faulkner, Umar Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Ben Duckett, Khurram Shehzad, Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Muhammad Ashar Qureshi, Noor Ahmad, Ahsan Ali, Luke Wood

Supplementary round: Ghulam Mudassar, Dan Lawrence

Partial replacements: Will Smeed, Ali Imran, Shimron Hetmyer

Our first pick is for the tournament winners. Unlike the IPL and BBL the odds on this one are ridiculously tight. All six franchises are separated by only a few ticks. The favourites are the 2020 champions Karachi Kings who are priced at 7/2. The outsiders are the Quetta Gladiators who are only as big as 13/2.

The reason for this is the ridiculous bias to the chasing teams at these two venues. There's a good chance that if you win the toss you'll find yourself on the winning side. In the last 50 games at these two venues the chasing team has won four times out of five. 

However, we are going to pick a winner and we're siding with the Lahore Qalandars. Not only do they have home advantage for the early rounds but have an exceptional squad. No one has a better bowling line up with T20 WC stand out Shaheen Shah Afridi and all round best spinner in the world in white ball cricket Rashid Khan. They also possess all-rounder David Wiese who starred for Namibia in the T20 world cup. Phil Salt and Harry Brook can cause serious damage at the top of the order and they have some great home-grown talent. 

Next up is a fairly obvious pick. Babar Azam is unstoppable right now. The 27-year-old captains the national team in all formats and is ridiculously good in this tournament. He is the all time top scorer at the PSL with 2070 runs at 43.12 av and won the Top Runscorer award for the last two seasons. His only other close competitor is his opening batting partner at Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan who is 2nd in the betting at 4/1. I think The Kings will go very deep in this competition and expect Azam to come out on top again. 

He is 3/1 to do so. 

Lastly we're taking a bit of a punt on our old friend Rashid Khan to be top wicket taker. Back in our Big Bash preview, we tipped up Khan to be top wicket taker but we didn't take into account he would be leaving early to join his national team and for this tournament. At the time Khan left the Adelaide Strikers, he was topping the wicket count with 20 victims. In his last innings he recorded career best figures of 6-17 to sign off in style. No spinner has ever won this award in the PSL but we think Khan is in the sort of form to do it. 

The Afghani maestro is 6/1 to head the pile here. 

Enjoy the cricket and remember to bet responsibly.