Until 2021-2022, Islamabad United was a franchise that boasted the record of at least one emerging player from every season going on to play and perform for Pakistan, be it Shadab Khan, Rumman Raees, or the latest one, Wasim Jr. Even their emerging fast bowler from PSL 5, Akif Javed, and their emerging batter from PSL 8, Hassan Nawaz, also made their international debut in the recent New Zealand tour.
However, since Wasim Jr., their emerging players have not gone on to play for Pakistan directly. Players like Akif and Hassan performed in other domestic tournaments, such as the Champions T20 Cup in Hassan’s case and franchise leagues like the BPL in Akif’s case, to get their Pakistan caps.
What is the reason behind this sudden change? Let’s go season-wise, starting with PSL 7 back in 2022.
Pakistan Super League 2022
Islamabad picked all-rounder Mubasir Khan and U19 pacer Zeeshan Zameer as their two emerging pick. In the supplementary round, they picked Athar Mahmood as the third emerging player.
Zeeshan Zameer
United had injury problems across categories that year, and similarly, the young pacer Zeeshan Zameer dismissed Babar Azam in his debut game with a jaffa and then had to go out due to injury concerns.
Mubasir Khan
Mubasir Khan played 7 games in that edition and batted only 3 times, and before that PSL, he had only 5 T20 games, including one against the MCC in Lahore. United batted Mubasir at number 8 in the first innings, and then later opened with him in the next two innings.
Similarly, there was only one game where Mubasir bowled his full allocation of 4 overs and finished at 1/19 in that match. In the other 4 matches, where he was asked to bowl, he was given just one over each!
Athar Mahmood
Athar Mahmood played the 2nd T20 match of his career in PSL and had to defend 106 against Multan Sultans. Athar bowled three overs in the powerplay and conceded just 21 runs. In the next game, United were bowling first, but Athar, despite finishing his two overs in the powerplay for just 9 runs, did not get to bowl more. Similarly, in his last PSL game, he bowled 3 overs and conceded just 19 runs, but did not get the full quota.
Pakistan Super League 2023
In PSL’s 8th edition, Islamabad picked up Zeeshan Zameer again and along with him, Pakistan’s most recent T20I centurion Hassan Nawaz. Mubasir Khan was picked in the supplementary round this time around.
Zeeshan Zameer
Zeeshan again played only one game and bowled 2 overs in that game against Lahore Qalandars. However, after that, he did not get any chance owing to injury and fitness concerns, yet again.
Mubasir Khan
It was a similar story for Mubasir Khan as well! He again played 7 matches but only got to bat in 3 innings and all of them were in the lower middle order, two innings at 5 and one at number 8!
His bowling opportunities were limited again as well as he only bowled 8 overs across 6 innings that he bowled in.
Hassan Nawaz
Hassan did not get many opportunities in his first PSL season, with only 3 chances and that too with gaps and at different locations.
All of these three innings were in chases, and in one of them against Multan Sultans, Hassan gave them a decent start, scoring 21 off 16 balls.
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Pakistan Super League 2024
Islamabad United signed three completely new emerging players: Hunain Shah, Ubaid Shah and Shamyl Hussain, and won the title in PSL’s 9th edition, with Hunain hitting the winning runs in the final.
Hunain Shah
Starting with Hunain, he got 10 games across the season out of the 12 United played. Hunain was also the 2nd most impactful emerging bowler and 4th most impactful bowler from his team, according to ESPNCricinfo. This shows that if given a proper run, an emerging player plays a very crucial role in a title-winning run for any team, like Zaman Khan for Lahore Qalandars or Shahnawaz Dahani for Multan Sultans.
Another thing to notice is that Hunain, unlike the previous ones, was a clever signing by Islamabad, who came with T20 experience in his resume. Players like Athar Mahmood or Mubasir Khan were mainly red-ball performers when they were picked, and Zeeshan Zameer came straight from the Pakistan U19 setup.
Ubaid Shah
Ubaid, like Zeeshan, was also coming directly from the Pakistan U19 setup and made his T20 debut in the opening match of the PSL, and did not perform in the two games he played due to the same reason.
After playing an edition of the Champions T20 Cup and the National T20, he is looking like a much better bowler for Multan this year.
Pakistan Super League 2025
This year, Islamabad has repicked Hunain Shah in the emerging category however, he has not played any match this year so far and picked Saad Masood. Muhammad Shahzad, also registered as an emerging player, was picked by them in the supplementary category.
While Islamabad has gone 5 out of 5 in this year’s PSL so far, their treatment of emerging players has been similar to their previous years.
Hunain Shah
Meanwhile, Islamabad United’s emerging star from the last year Hunain Shah has only played one match so far this season, where he bowled only one over and conceded 13 runs against Lahore Qalandars.
Muhammad Shahzad
Like Mubasir Khan and Athar Mahmood, Shahzad was also picked based on his Player of the Tournament performance in a red-ball tournament, i.e. President’s Trophy.
Shahzad has just played three games in this year’s PSL so far, including the season opener in which he did not bowl or bat! He has only batted in one game so far, but did not get to face any balls in that match against Karachi Kings.
Across these three games, he only got the chance to bowl in two, and he bowled only 1.4 overs combined in these matches.
Then came a nightmare for Shahzad, Hassan Nawaz. In his fourth game, Shahzad did not bowl a single ball until the last over, where he was sent in to defend 15 runs in the last over against Hassan Nawaz, who was on 48 off 36 at that point. Shahzad effectively created three chances, and all of them were grassed, the first one by Shahzad himself and he lost the match.
Next game, he again only bowls one over and concedes two sixes by Hassan Nawaz.
Saad Masood
Saad has played one PSL match for Peshawar Zalmi before, too, back in 2023. His bowling exploits were not flattering, as he conceded 40 runs in three overs, but he showed his batting prowess by scoring 16 off just 8 balls against the likes of Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf.
In the first match Saad played, he did not get to bat, and in the next game, he did get to bat, but it was too late since he did not get to face any balls. In the third match he played, he came to bat in the 14th over, which seems like a decent entry point, however, he was batting at number 7, and Islamabad were 89/5 at that point, leaving an emerging player in a difficult situation.
Saad got to bowl in two out of the three matches he played, and both times it was against his former team, Peshawar Zalmi, where he bowled 4 overs combined!
Conclusion
Islamabad United has won one title since 2018, and in the last few years, the only season in which they have given a consistent run to their emerging players.
Even if we look at 2018, Hussain Talat was their emerging player in 2018, playing 12 games and was their 3rd highest runscorer.
Similarly, Lahore Qalandars’ two title-winning seasons had immense contributions from Zaman Khan and Tahir Baig; Multan Sultans had Shahnawaz Dahani as their best bowler in their title-winning season.
Islamabad has so far only lost one game this year, but the ultimate question is, how long do they think they can continue like this, playing with basically 10 players on the field?
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