Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey

PSL 2021 Match 1: KAR vs QUE Dream11 Prediction Possible Playing 11 Pitch Report | KAR vs QUE Dream11 Prediction Today | Karachi Kings vs Quetta Gladiators Key Players | Karachi Pitch Report

PSL 2021 will get underway on February 20th when last year’s Champions Karachi Kings will face Quetta Gladiators, the most consistent team in the PSL having played 3 finals and title winners of 2019. The most-watched T20 league in Pakistan will witness top players Chris Gayle, Babar Azam, Faf du Plessis and Colin Ingram in action on Day 1.

Kings have made some significant changes coming into PSL 2021 by trading Alex Hales who is one of the hottest T20 Properties in the world right now and have also released Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed. A series T20 Winner in Daniel Christain, alongside Mohammad Nabi, have also joined them and would be putting their best foot forward in defending the Title.

On the other hand, Gladiators have availed the services of Universe Boss for the first three matches before he heads back to the Caribbean and they also have the likes of Tom Banton who would be keen to make a mark after opting out of the IPL auction.

Karachi Kings Skipper Wasim would be hoping for back-to-back title win and on the contrary, his former skipper and the present skipper of Gladiators Sarfaraz is eyeing a spot back on the national side and will be keen to use PSL 2021 as a ladder.

Also read: PSL 2021 – Complete squad lists, venues and details

Key Players to Watch/Key Stats

Quetta Gladiators

• Chris Gayle – No matter how many players come and go, Universe Boss will remain the undisputed King of T20 format.  Gayle also has the good habit of performing against his former team, i.e. the way he has destroyed KKR and RCB in the past. He will be playing against his former side Karachi and would be keen to perform and start the tournament on a win.
• Sarfaraz Ahmed – Reports in Pakistani Media suggest that the former skipper might promote himself up the order in this season of PSL and is working hard to put up a solid performance. Ahmed has played 10 games against Karachi and scored 152 runs at an average of 50.67 which includes the best of 56 not out.
• Ben Cutting – The Aussie all-rounder must be high on confidence after getting a lucrative offer and getting back to the IPL. He looked in good touch in the Big Bash and will be keen to start the tournament on a high. Playing for the Thunder, Cutting struck 280 runs in 15 matches at an average of 40 and strike rate of 156.42.
• Azam Khan – The hard-hitting wicket-keeping batsman has been grabbing eye-balls of late, thanks to heroics in LPL and the recently concluded T10 league. He would like to continue the show and find himself a spot on the national side. He also scored 46 runs off 30 balls in last year’s PSL.
• Anwar Ali – The Pakistani All-Rounder will be playing on his home ground and has got good numbers against Karachi so we can expect some good performance from him. In fact, he has the most wickets in Kings-Gladiators matches (9).

Karachi Kings

• Babar Azam –  Azam is one of the most consistent and dependable batsmen in this format of the game.  He was the highest run-scorer in last year PSL and Kings will hope for the same performance from him if they want to defend the title. Azam has scored 257 runs from 9 matches at an average of 28.56.
• Colin Ingram – Kings have gambled Ingram for Hales and the Proteas batsmen would be keen to prove his worth. He also scored a century against Quetta in the 2019 season. He will be a good pick in Grand Leagues.
• Imad Wasim – Kings Skipper will surely want to lead from the front and get this team to a winning start. Quetta has got plenty right handers in the Top 5 and that makes Imad a valuable pick.
• Mohammad Amir – One of the best bowlers in Pakistan has been in news for all the wrong reasons. He would like to keep that aside and start fresh from this season and then decide on his future for playing for Pakistan.

Stats & Facts

• Avg 1st innings score in Karachi last season was 159.
• 8 of the 11 PSL 2020 matches in Karachi were won by the team batting second.
• Babar Azam is the second-highest run-scorer in PSL history.
• Sarfaraz will be leading Quetta for the sixth straight time.

Possible Playing 11

The New PSL rule says that there will be two emerging players in every squad and one has to play every game.

Karachi Kings: 1. Sharjeel Khan, 2. Babar Azam (c), 3. Zeeshan Malik, 4. Colin Ingram, 5. Chadwick Walton (wk), 6. Danish Aziz, 7. Daniel Christian, 8. Imad Wasim (c), 9. Mohammad Amir, 10. Arshad Iqbal/Umaid Asif, 11. Qasim Akram/Waqas Maqsood

Quetta Gladiators: 1. Chris Gayle, 2. Tom Banton, 3. Cameron Delport, 4. Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), 5. Azam Khan, 6. Ben Cutting, 7. Mohammad Nawaz, 8. Mohammad Hasnain, 9. Naseem Shah, 10. Usman Shinwari, 11. Zahid Mehmood

National Stadium Karachi Pitch Report and Weather

National Stadium Karachi usually offers a competitive track and either side will want to chase upon winning the toss with 160-170 being a decent score at this venue.

Temperatures will reduce to the mid-teens by the night after a hot day. No rain is forecast.

Dream11 Prediction

Leagues to Play

Through out the BBL, I have been played around -250-350 contest by keeping a sample size of 20 contest per league to find out which leagues give the good profit on an average, will share leagues going forward 🙂

During the start of the tourney, it is always advisable to play safe leagues as the think tank can make changes in the batting order or use a different strategy while bowling first/second.

This INR 120 small league is somewhat good, its offers 4X of your investment if you come first and at the same time, you go safe as well when 50% of the folks get their investment back.

Option 1:

Option 2:

Thanks for reading!

Written by Shekhar Singh. Follow Shekhar on Twitter today.