01/05/2026
This has probably been the dullest season of the PSL in terms of competitiveness and spectacle, but Hyderabad Kingsmen have been the one side making it memorable and genuinely watchable. It’s such a feel-good story.
No team in any previous PSL season, or even this one , has felt as “Pakistan-coded” as Hyderabad Kingsmen. It goes back to when the auction for two new teams was about to take place and nobody was even considering Hyderabad as a serious contender. Yet one audacious man put his money on his birth city. He kept getting maligned—first for naming the team he bought with his own hard-earned money the way he wanted, and then for drafting his preferred players, many of whom had seemingly given up on their ambitions to represent Pakistan.
Things only got worse when they lost four on the trot and looked completely directionless, with no clear strategy. But what followed has been a proper turnaround; a case study in a team excelling as the sum of its parts while being run in a professional, coherent manner.
Marnus Labuschagne has been a reincarnation of Misbah-ul-Haq circa 2016. Everyone mocked his signing, yet he’s been nothing short of inspirational. And Hunain Shah has made every “middle child” proud this season 🤪 he’s the perfect example of someone who never got the attention or respect he deserved, yet turned out to be the jewel in the crown when it mattered most.
His performances this season have been so outstanding that it would genuinely be surprising if he doesn’t get a national call-up soon. Then again, it wouldn’t be shocking either because we’ve seen players do far less in the PSL and earn a cap, while someone like Zaman Khan, who once dominated the death overs in similar fashion, barely got a consistent run with Pakistan.