Lahore Qalandars Background
Lahore Qalanders, A mighty yet to rise
Lahore Qalandars is the second most expensive franchise after Karachi Kings. The team is owned by a Qatar Lubricant Company Limited. Mr Fawad Rana is the proud owner of QALCO (Qatar Lubricant Company Limited). Lahore Qalanders.
The current Captain for Lahore Qalandars is Muhammad Hafeez, who was a player of Peshawar Zalmi, and had great stats there.
Fakhar Zaman the most iconic find of Lahore Qalandars who opens the innings for Pakistan in all three formats is vice-captain of the team. Azhar Ali, Pakistan’s best batsman in current squad of test team, lead Lahore Qalandars in first season of PSL.
In second and third season Brandon McCullum captained the team though the fate of the team never changed. They were the first to be eliminated in all the seasons of Pakistan Super League.
Now in PSL season 4 Mr Fawad Rana is hopeful for a different result. Umar Akmal has scored most runs for Lahore Qalandars and Sunil Naraine took most wickets for Lahore Qalandars.
Irony is that they both are not a part of Lahore Qalandars squad this season. And quite ironically the previous captains of Lahore Qalandars are not a part of squad as well.
This shows core changes that Lahore Qalandars have made in this season of PSL.
Lahore Qalandars Addition to Pakistani Cricket
Lahore Qalandars as a franchise have been very active. They ran a player development program in collaboration with Jazz, Jazz Rising Stars. They sent the selected players to Australia to train with Sydney Thunders.
They have been running this player development program every year since 2016. Lahore Qalandars won Abu Dhabi t-20 league which had team from all around the world participating.
There were some well known international players in all the teams, on the other hand Lahore Qalandars were solely based on the young talent they found in Player development program.
Mr Fawad Rana has taken many positive steps for cricket in Pakistan. And Pakistan Cricket is very thankful to him.
Mr Fawad Rana himself is a very jolly character. He is equally loved by whole Pakistan. Though his team has been disappointing he never lose hope.
One of the reasons people like Lahore Qalandars is Mr Fawad Rana. He also composed and sang the song for Lahore Qalandars in PSL 2017.
He received admiration form then acting Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mr Najam Sethi. We wish him best of Luck for this season.
Lahore Qalandars Performance in PSL 1
In first season of Pakistan Super League, Lahore Qalandars were expected to do wonders.
They had the best players like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Umar Akmal and Yasir Shah in their camp. Some would argue but they also had the biggest following in the tournament.
They started with two consecutive losses. They managed to win from Quetta Gladiators but out of their 8 games they managed to win only two.
They still had their chances if they defeat Islamabad United in their last game of group stages. But Islamabad United won the game and went on to winning the tournament.
Though Lahore Qalandars were eliminated in group stages Umar Akmal had played brilliant. He won Highest run scorer award in PSL season 1.
He made 4 fifties, great effort. Lahore Qalandars were given “Spirit of the game” and “Fair Play Award”.
Lahore Qalandars Performance in Season 2
In second season of PSL, Lahore Qalandars came to play with a new Captain Brandon McCullum, who was former Kiwi Captain.
Chris Gayle was also traded for Sohail Tanvir. Sunil Narine, Shawn Tait, Anton Devcich and Jason Roy were also a part of Lahore Qalandars this time.
Lahore though lost their opening game with Quetta Gladiators but they bounced back strong defeating the defending champions, Islamabad United. In the next game we witnessed a collapse, Lahore Qalandars were all out on 59.
Everyone thought it will be like a walk in a park for Peshawar Zalmis, but it was not. Yasir Shah sent four batsmen to pavilion for just seven runs.
Brandon McCullum truly introduced himself at that time in PSL as an aggressive captain. He backed his bowlers well, gave them confidence and they almost pulled it off. Peshawar barely managed to survive the attack from Lahore Qalandars.
Lahore Qalandars registered their second victory against the arch rivals Karachi Kings in a very close encounter. Fakhar Zaman who was introduced in last game against Peshawar Zalmi played a brilliant knock of 56 of just 36 and took his team to 180.
Lahore managed to win this close contest with just 7 runs. But in the next game against Quetta Gladiators they could not secure their target of 201.
They gave away 78 runs in just 3.5 overs and ended up as a losing side. Lahore Qalandars won the next game against Islamabad Untied in last over.
It was a close contest. The famous Bat drop scene from Grant Elliot happened in this match. And when the tournament moved to Dubai, Lahore Qalandars luck ran out.
They lost matches and they couldn’t manage to chase 167, in that match Lahore collapsed again from 38-1 to 43-6. Lahore could have made it to the next stage if they had beaten Karachi Kings in their last match.
In this match Lahore posted a respectable total on board. They had the game under control till the last over. 14 runs were needed in final over.
And Pollard hit 2 sixes of last 2 balls to eliminate Lahore Qalandars in second season of PSL.
Lahore Qalandars Performance in Season 3
In the last season of PSL, Lahore Qalandars came in with high hopes, but their hopes were shattered when they lost their first 3 games from Multan Sultans, Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings.
They suffered major Batting collapses in these matches. In their first match they were going well in chase of Multan Sultans 180.
Then the collapse happened, they went 132-4 to 136-all out and ended up losing match with 43 runs. Against Quetta Gladiators they were cruising till 5th over, they were 60-2.
And after that they could only manage 59 of last 15 overs. Quetta chased down 119 with 9 wickets remaining. Same was the story against Karachi Kings.
They were furious in first 6 overs and after that they collapsed and lost the game by 27 runs. Tournament then shifted to Sharjah but the fate remained same.
Lahore were given a small target of 122 by Islamabad United. Lahore were going fine till 12th over at 72-2. Then they started losing wickets and the game was at 115-9 in 19.4. 2 balls and 7 runs required.
Debutant Sulman Irshad hit a six. And got out on the next ball. Scores were leveled. Match result was decided in Super Over.
Lahore couldn’t defend 16 runs of super over.
In next match against Zalmis Lahore again suffered a batting collapse. They were 56-0 and ended up 100-all out. Lahore lost its matches till they were knocked out.
They won a few but by then it was too late. Lahore again was disqualified first.
Overall results for Lahore Qalanders are, they played 26 total games and have won only 8 of them. They lost 17. One was not resulted.
Lahore Qalandars Squad 2019
| No. | Name | Nat. | Birth date | Bat | Bowl | Contract signed year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | |||||||
| AB de Villiers |  |
17 February 1984 | R | R medium | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Fakhar Zaman |  |
10 April 1990 | L | L orthodox spin | 2019 | Vice-captain | |
| Brendan Taylor |  |
6 February 1986 | R | R off break | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Sohail Akhtar | |
2 March 1986 | R | R medium | 2019 | ||
| All-rounders | |||||||
| Mohammad Hafeez | |
17 October 1980 | R | R off break | 2019 | Captain | |
| Haris Sohail | |
9 January 1989 | L | slow L unorthodox | 2019 | ||
| Agha Salman | |
23 November 1993 | R | R off break | 2019 | ||
| Anton Devcich |  |
28 September 1985 | L | Slow L orthodox | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Carlos Brathwaite |  |
18 July 1988 | R | R medium fast | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Corey Anderson | |
13 December 1990 | L | L medium fast | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Hasan Khan | |
16 October 1998 | R | slow L unorthodox | 2019 | ||
| Mohammad Imran | |
25 December 1996 | R | R medium | 2019 | ||
| Wicket-keepers | |||||||
| Gauhar Ali | |
5 May 1989 | R | — | 2019 | ||
| Umair Masood | |
7 December 1997 | R | — | 2019 | ||
| Bowlers | |||||||
| Shaheen Afridi | |
6 April 2000 | L | L fast | 2019 | ||
| Rahat Ali | |
12 September 1988 | R | L medium fast | 2019 | ||
| Sandeep Lamichhane |  |
2 August 2000 | R | R leg break | 2019 | Overseas | |
| Yasir Shah | |
2 May 1986 | R | R leg break | 2019 | ||
| Aizaz Cheema | |
5 September 1979 | R | R medium fast | 2019 | ||
| Haris Rauf | |
7 November 1995 | R | R fast | 2019 | ||
Some Lahore Qalandar stats are as follows:
| Year | Pld | Won | Loss | Tie&W | Tie&L | NR | SR(%) | Position | Summary |
| 2016 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 | 5/5 | Group Stage |
| 2017 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37.50 | 5/5 | Group Stage |
| 2018 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30.00 | 6/6 | Group Stage |
| Total | 26 | 8 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30.76 | – | 0 titles |
Head-to-head record
| Opposition | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tie&W | Tie&L | NR | SR% |
| Islamabad United | 2016–present | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 41.66 |
| Karachi Kings | 2016–present | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Multan Sultans | 2018–present | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Peshawar Zalmi | 2016–present | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16.66 |
| Quetta Gladiators | 2016–present | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 33.33 |
Most runs
| Nat. | Player | From | To | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | HS | 100 | 50 |
| Umar Akmal | 2016 | present | 20 | 20 | 556 | 32.70 | 93 | 0 | 5 | |
| Fakhar Zaman | 2017 | present | 18 | 18 | 454 | 25.22 | 94 | 0 | 2 | |
| Cameron Delprt | 2016 | present | 14 | 13 | 327 | 27.25 | 78 | 0 | 3 | |
| Brendon McCullum | 2017 | present | 18 | 17 | 311 | 20.73 | 44 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mohammad Rizwan | 2016 | 2017 | 16 | 12 | 233 | 25.88 | 50* | 0 | 1 |
Most wickets
| Nat. | Player | From | To | Matches | Overs | Wickets | Average | BBI | 4w | 5w |
| Sunil Narine | 2017 | present | 17 | 66.0 | 20 | 20.55 | 3/28 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yasir Shah | 2017 | present | 18 | 66.0 | 20 | 22.20 | 4/7 | 1 | 0 | |
| Sohail Tanvir | 2017 | 2017 | 8 | 29.5 | 10 | 25.10 | 2/24 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sohail Khan | 2018 | present | 7 | 25.4 | 8 | 28.25 | 3/34 | 0 | 0 | |
| Zafar Gohar | 2016 | 2016 | 5 | 12.2 | 7 | 14.57 | 4/14 | 1 | 0 |
This Pakistan Super League season 4 Lahore Qalandars have signed AB De Villiers and M Hafeez. Let’s hope their fans get something to cheer about in this season.
Lahore Qalandars has been the most active franchise and they have put a lot of effort in finding new talents. We wish all the best to Lahore Qalanders.
