The tournament will kick off on Thursday, March 26, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore with hosts and defending champions Lahore Qalandars taking on new franchise Hyderabad Kingsmen.

Due to the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, a decision was made to play the entire tournament behind closed doors and only in two venues - Lahore and Karachi. The former is also set to host two Eliminators and the showpiece final on May 3.

Teams taking part in PSL 2026

The 2026 PSL season will be the first to have eight teams competing for the trophy with two new franchises joining the league. The teams featuring in this year's PSL are as follows:

1. Lahore Qalandars
2. Karachi Kings
3. Quetta Gladiators
4. Islamabad United
5. Peshawar Zalmi
6. Rawalpindi Pindiz
7. Hyderabad Kingsmen - New franchise
8. Sialkot Stallions (rebranded to Multan Sultans) - New franchise

What happened in 2025?

The 2025 edition of the marquee T20 tournament was won by Lahore Qalandars, their third title in the last four seasons, beating Quetta Gladiators in the final by six wickets. Kusal Perera scored an unbeaten 62 off 31 balls to take his side home, for which he was also awarded the Player of the Match.

Hasan Nawaz was declared the Player of the Tournament after scoring 399 runs in the tournament at an average of 57. It was, however, Sahibzada Farhan who finished as the highest runs scorer, hitting 449 runs. Shaheen Shah Afridi, on the other hand, was the leading wicket-taker with 19 scalps to his name.

Tournament structure

The 2026 PSL season comprises 44 games, which includes 40 Group Stage matches, three playoff matches and the final. The eight teams are divided into groups of four where each side will play the three remaining teams twice and the four teams from the other group once.

In total, each side will be playing 10 games in the Group Stage. The top four sides will advance through to the playoffs. A concept very similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the top two teams play each other in a playoff vying for a place in the final. The third and the fourth ranked sides will play each other in Eliminator 1. The winner gets to play the loser from the playoffs in a virtual semi-final to book a place in the final.

Full Squads Overview

Islamabad United:Shadab Khan (c), Salman Irshad, Andries Gous, Devon Conway, Faheem Ashraf, Mehran Mumtaz, Max Bryant, Mark Chapman, Mir Hamza Sajjad, Sameer Minhas, Sameen Gul, Haider Ali, Richard Gleeson, Mohammad Hasnain, Dipendra Singh Airee, Mohammad Faiq, Salman Mirza, Nisar Ahmad, Shamar Joseph, Imad Wasim.

Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam (c), Sufiyan Muqeem, Abdul Samad, Ali Raza, Aaron Hardie, Aamir Jamal, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Haris, Khalid Usman, Abdul Subhan, James Vince, Michael Bracewell, Kusal Mendis, Iftikhar Ahmed, Nahid Rana, Mirza Tahir Baig, Kashif Ali, Shahnawaz Dahani, Farhan Yousaf, Mohammad Basit, Shoriful Islam.

Quetta Gladiators:Saud Shakeel (c), Abrar Ahmed, Hassan Nawaz, Usman Tariq, Shamyl Hussain, Rilee Rossouw, Jahandad Khan, Faisal Akram, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Shehzad Gul, Spencer Johnson, Sam Harper, Bevon Jacobs, Ben McDermott, Tom Curran, Jahanzaib Sultan, Alzarri Joseph, Ahsan Ali, Bismillah Khan.

Lahore Qalandars:Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Abdullah Shafique, Sikandar Raza, Mohammad Naeem, Mustafizur Rahman, Haris Rauf, Usama Mir, Fakhar Zaman, Ubaid Shah, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Farooq, Dasun Shanaka, Parvez Hossain Emon, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Tayyab Tahir, Rubin Hermann, Dunith Wellalage, Maaz Khan, Shahab Khan, Gudakesh Motie.

Multan Sultans:Ashton Turner (c), Steve Smith, Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, Peter Siddle, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lachlan Shaw, Delano Potgieter, Josh Philippe, Momin Qamar, Mohammad Awais Zafar, Shan Masood, Mohammad Shehzad, Mohammad Ismail, Arshad Iqbal, Atizaz Habib Khan, Ahmed Daniyal, Salman Mirza, Saad Masood.

Karachi Kings:David Warner (c), Hassan Ali, Abbas Afridi, Khushdil Shah, Saad Baig, Moeen Ali, Azam Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Shahid Aziz, Mir Hamza, Adam Zampa, Mohammad Hamza Sohail, Aqib Ilyas, Khuzaima Bin Tanveer, Muhammad Waseem, Ihsanullah, Rizwan Ullah, Reeza Hendricks, Johnson Charles.

Rawalpindi:Mohammad Rizwan (c), Naseem Shah, Daryl Mitchell, Sam Billings, Zaman Khan, Yasir Khan, Rishad Hossain, Mohammad Amir, Abdullah Fazal, Amad Butt, Laurie Evans, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Dian Forrester, Asif Afridi, Kamran Ghulam, Fawad Ali, Mohammad Amir Khan.

Hyderabad Kingsmen: Marnus Labuschagne (c), Saim Ayub, Usman Khan, Glenn Maxwell, Akif Javed, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Ali, Kusal Perera, Irfan Khan Niazi, Hassan Khan, Shayan Jahangir, Hammad Azam, Asif Mehmood, Hunain Shah, Riley Meredith, Sharjeel Khan, Rizwan Mehmood, Saad Ali, Tayyab Arif, Ahmed Hussain, Ottniel Baartman.

One player to watch out for from each side:

• Islamabad United: Shadab Khan
• Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam
• Quetta Gladiators: Abrar Ahmed
• Lahore Qalandars: Shaheen Shah Afridi
• Multan Sultans - Steve Smith
• Karachi Kings - Adam Zampa
• Rawalpindi Pindiz - Naseem Shah
• Hyderabad Kingsmen - Saim Ayub

Where to watch PSL 2026?

• Australia & New Zealand: ESPN
• USA & Canada: Willow, Willow Sports, Willow by Cricbuzz
• United Kingdom: ARY Digital, ARY Plus, Tapmad
• Bangladesh: T Sports, Tapmad
• Sri Lanka: Dialog Television
• Nepal: Tapmad
• MENA (Middle East & North Africa): Cricbuzz, also available on Cricbuzz TV via ELIFE, Switch TV, and StarPlay
• Rest of the World: Tapmad

Revised PSL 2026 schedule