The Pakistan Cricket Board released the new player categories for season 11 of the Pakistan Super League on Wednesday (January 28).
How does player retention work for PSL 2026?
A host of structural changes have been implemented for the new season, as the PSL moves from a draft to an auction system for the first time. The rules for the player auction were announced earlier this week, and that will take place on February 11.
Ahead of the auction, each team is allowed to retain a maximum of four local players, and not more than one from each category. On Wednesday (January 28), these player categories were finalised.
Sixteen players have been named in the Platinum category, the highest one. Of these, six – Shadab Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Imad Wasim – are from Islamabad United. ISLU can retain only one of them, so at least five will be headed for the auction. Similarly, each team can keep hold of only one player from each category.
The two new teams this year, Kingsmen Hyderabad and Sialkot Stallionz, will be allowed to pick four players from the pool of cricketers who are not retained by the six pre-existing franchises. Following that, the auction list will be made, which will include overseas players. Each side is also allowed to directly sign one overseas player that did not take part in the previous PSL season.
PSL 2026: Player retention categories for each team
| Platinum | Diamond | Gold | Silver | Emerging | |
| Islamabad United | Shadab Khan Naseem Shah Sahibzada Farhan Salman Ali Agha Mohammad Nawaz Imad Wasim | - | Azam Khan Haider Ali Salman Irshad Rumman Raees | Mohammad Faiq Hunain Shah | Saad Masood Mohammad Shahzad Mohammad Ghazi Ghori |
| Karachi Kings | Hasan Ali | Abbas Afridi Shan Masood | Khushdil Shah Aamir Jamal Mohammad Irfan Khan Mir Hamza Zahid Mehmood Omair Bin Yousuf Shahnawaz Dahani Arafat Minhas | Mirza Mamoon Imtiaz | Muhammad Riazullah Fawad Ali Saad Baig |
| Lahore Qalandars | Shaheen Shah Afridi Fakhar Zaman Haris Rauf | Abdullah Shafique Salman Mirza | Zaman Khan Jahandad Khan Asif Afridi Asif Ali | Muhammad Akhlaq Mohammad Naeem Mohammad Azab | Momin Qamar |
| Multan Sultans | Mohammad Rizwan | Usama Mir Iftikhar Ahmed Usman Khan | Kamran Ghulam Mohammad Hasnain Faisal Akram Akif Javed Tayyab Tahir | Yasir Khan Muhammad Amir Barki Mohammad Junaid Humayun Altaf Ali Imran Jahanzaib Sultan Ubaid Shah | Shahid Aziz Mohammad Zulkifal |
| Peshawar Zalmi | Babar Azam Saim Ayub | Sufyan Moqim | Mohammad Haris Mohammad Ali Abdul Samad Hussain Talat Ahmed Daniyal Ihsanullah | Arif Yaqoob Mehran Mumtaz | Abdullah Fazal Ali Raza Maaz Sadaqat |
| Quetta Gladiators | Faheem Ashraf Mohammad Amir Abrar Ahmed | Saud Shakeel Mohammad Wasim Jnr Usman Tariq | Khurram Shahzad Haseebullah Khan Khawaja Nafay Hasan Nawaz Danish Aziz | Ali Majid | Mohammad Zeeshan Shamyl Hussain |
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