Lahore Qalandars

After drafting star players such as Chris Gayle, Umar Akmal, Dwayne Bravo, Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah in the initial player draft, Qalandars started the tournament with two consecutive losses against Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi.[12][13][14] Their first victory came against Quetta Gladiators. The team won only two of their eight group stage matches, although they could still have qualified for the play-off section of the tournament if they had won their final group game against Islamabad United. A loss by five wickets saw Qalanders finish last in the first edition of the PSl. Despite playing only seven games, Umar Akmal was the highest run scorer of the tournament and won the 'Best Batsman' award for his 335 runs with four fifties. During the finals, Qalandars were given the "Spirit of The Game" award for showing the best sportsmanship throughout the tournament and "Fair play award".[15]

Lahore Qalandars icon player in first season of the PSL Chris Gayle was traded for Sohail Tanvir of the Karachi Kings during the off-season trade window.[16] Sohaib Maqsood was also traded for Aamer Yamin of Peshawar Zalmi.[17] In September 2016, the team also signed New Zealand's former captain Brendon McCullum as their new captain during the off-season.[18]

During the 2017 PSL players draft, Lahore picked a number of new players, including bowlers Yasir Shah and Sunil Narine. The team retained players such as Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Dwayne Bravo. Later Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich were replaced with Jason Roy and James Franklin while Shaun Tait was replaced with Chris Green.[19]

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Lahore Qalandars lost a closely fought match to the Quetta Gladiators. In pursuit of 137, they managed 128 before being bowled out in the penultimate over.[20] The team bounced back in the next match by beating defending champions, Islamabad United. A partnership of 71 runs between Jason Roy and Umar Akmal set up the Qalandar's chase of 159 before a quick cameo of 26(12) by Sunil Narine finished the game.[21] However, in the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the Qalandars collapsed to 59 all-out inside 11 overs - the second shortest innings in T20 cricket history.[22] But, Yasir Shah took 4 wickets for 7 runs in the defense to almost take his team to victory before the Zalmis prevailed by 3-wickets.[23]

As the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Qalandars registered their second win on the trot. That too against arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. The match was hard-fought between the two sides before the Qalandars prevailed by 7 runs in the final over. Fakhar Zaman, who was also adjudged man-of-the-match, set up his team's target of 180 through his quick-fire innings of 56(36).[24] But in the next game, against Quetta Gladiators, the Qalandars were unable to defend a target of 201 despite being in control for most of the match. They allowed 78 runs to be leaked from the last 3.5 overs to end up on the losing side.[25] However, following this loss, the Qalandars managed to win against Islamabad United by 1-wicket in a tense contest that saw them chase 146 runs in 19.3 overs. Umar Akmal anchored his team's innings by scoring 66 off 42 balls before Grant Elliott finished the chase with a six over midwicket.[26]

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Qalandars suffered back to back defeats against Peshawar Zalmi and arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. Against the Zalmis, the team couldn't chase down 167 after a drastic collapse from 38-1 to 43-6 and fell short by 17 runs.[27] Following this, the Qalandars lost a must-win game against the Kings by 5-wickets. After putting up a respectable target of 156 on board, the team leaked 14-runs from the final over - including sixes on the last two balls to end up on the losing side.[28] These two loses meant that the Qalandars finished at the bottom of the table after the league stage and were, in return, knocked out from the play-off proceedings for the second consecutive year.[29]

The Qalandars lost the first three games of the season, against Multan Sultans, Quetta Gladiators and, arch-rivals,[30][31] Karachi Kings respectively - suffering major batting collapses in each. In the match against the Sultans, they went from 132-4 to 136 all-out, thus falling short in their chase of 180 by 43 runs.[32] While against the Gladiators, they could not build on the excellent start they got. They were 60-2 in the fifth over but could only manage 59 runs in the remaining 15 overs to finish at 119-9. In reply, the Gladiator won by 9 wickets.[33] In the match against the Kings, Qalandars were set a hefty target of 160 runs. They got off to a great start and were 68 for 1 in 6 overs before losing several wickets in quick succession during the middle overs to end up 27 runs short.[34]

As the league stage shifted to Sharjah, the team's fortunes did not change and they lost a closely fought match to Islamabad United. In pursuit of a below-par target of 122 runs, the Qalandars were on course for an easy win at 77-2 in the 12th over, before losing wickets in quick succession to end up at 115-9. A penultimate ball six from debutant, Salman Irshad, leveled the scores before the team got all-out the next ball, instigating a Super Over. Batting first in the one-over eliminator, the Qalandars set a target of 16 runs, which the United achieved via a last-ball six.[35] The Qalanders continued with their losing streak in the next game against Peshawar Zalmi. Batting first, the Qalanders once again suffered a batting collapse and went from 56-0 to 100 all-out. In reply, the Zalmis made the target with all 10 wickets intact - the first such instance in PSL's history. This loss effectively ended Lahore's chances for a playoff berth, making them the first team to be eliminated from the second stage of the tournament.[36]

In July 2018, they were one of the six teams invited to play in the first edition of the Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy, scheduled to start in October 2018. On October 6, 2018 they won the tournament by beating Titans in the final.[37]

Team management picked twelve new players, during the 2019 PSL draft, including the International stars like AB De Villiers, Mohammad Hafeez, Corey Anderson, David Wiese, Sandeep Lamichhane, Haris Sohail, Brendon Taylor and Carlos Brathwaite.[38]

Originally the Qalandars were to be captained by Mohammad Hafeez, but due to an injury during team's second fixture, he had to withdraw his name from the squad. Then, AB De Villiers captained in two matches while Fakhar Zaman led the side in their remaining six matches. Like, all previous seasons, they finished at the bottom of the points table this time as well, after winning only three of their ten matches, and as a result, were eliminated in the group stage.

In PSL V, Lahore Qalandars reached the playoffs and the final for the first time in PSL history. Lahore Qalandars lost to Karachi Kings by five wickets in the final.[39]

Qalandars have an active rivalry with Karachi Kings, [49] and is considered to be the biggest rivalry in the PSL due to their historic economic and cultural rivalry.[50] As of 2020 season both teams have played against each other 10 times, with Qalandars coming out victorious in 4 of them.[51] Both teams have a large fan following which makes their matches more intense and interesting to watch.[52] Both teams are known to be the expensive teams of PSL.[8]

• Tie+W and Tie+L indicates matches tied and then won or Lost in a tiebreaker such as a bowlout or one-over-eliminator ("Super Over")
• The result percentage excludes no results and counts ties (irrespective of a tiebreaker) as half a win.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 15 March 2020

Opposition	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Tie&W	Tie&L	NR	%
Islamabad United	2016–present	10	2	8	0	1	0	20.00
Karachi Kings	2016–present	10	4	6	1	0	0	40.00
Multan Sultans	2018–present	6	3	3	0	0	0	50.00
Peshawar Zalmi	2016–present	10	2	8	0	0	0	20.00
Quetta Gladiators	2016–present	10	5	5	0	0	0	50.00
Hobart Hurricanes	2018–2018	1	1	0	0	0	0	100.00
Yorkshire Vikings	2018–2018	1	1	0	0	0	0	100.00
Titans	2018–2018	1	1	0	0	0	0	100.00
MCC	2020–2020	1	0	1	0	0	0	0.00

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 14 December 2020

Nat.	Player	From	To	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100	50
	Fakhar Zaman	2017	2020	40	40	1064	26.60	94	0	7
	Sohail Akhtar	2018	present	32	30	625	29.76	75	0	3
	Umar Akmal	2016	2018	20	20	556	32.70	93	0	5
	Mohammad Hafeez	2019	present	15	14	331	36.77	98	0	2
	Cameron Delport	2016	2018	14	13	327	27.25	78	0	3

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 4 March 2019

Nat.	Player	From	To	Matches	Wickets	Average	BBI	SR	4w	5w
	Shaheen Afridi	2018	present	22	28	22.60	5/4	16.8	1	1
	Yasir Shah	2017	2019	23	23	25.21	4/7	21.6	1	0
	Sunil Narine	2017	2018	17	20	20.55	3/28	19.8	0	0
	Haris Rauf	2018	present	14	16	24.28	4/23	19.1	0	0
	David Wiese	2019	Present	15	12	30.66	2/16	21.5	0	0

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last Updated: 4 March 2020