Mohammad Rizwan is the player Pakistan cricket leans on when it cannot afford to lose. As Pakistan’s T20I captain, as Multan Sultans’ captain across multiple PSL seasons, and as the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter, he is the central figure in two of the country’s three white-ball units.
Shaheen Shah Afridi is the player every Pakistani academy now models its left-arm fast bowlers on. He is also the one who, when fit and rhythmic, gives Pakistan the new-ball strike threat that defines great Test attacks. The “when fit” part has been the conversation around him since 2022.
Babar Azam is the most accomplished batter Pakistan has produced since Mohammad Yousuf. Across formats, across captains, across coaching staffs and PCB regimes, he has been the one constant the team builds around. Two years past his Pakistan captaincy he is still, by most metrics, the country’s best batter.
When the Hyderabad Kingsmen announced Marnus Labuschagne as their directly-signed overseas player and captain for the PSL 2026 debut season, the reaction across Pakistan cricket Twitter was a single word: why? Labuschagne is the best Test batter in the world by ranking, but he came into the PSL with a T20I average of 24 and almost no domestic T20 captaincy experience.