The players draft in Pakistan Super League for first day concluded on 20th December and it was a fantastic day for the beginning of mega T20 event. A total of 45 players were drafted on the first day of HBL PSL Draft for season-1 of championship in February. Shahid Afridi became the first player who was picked up in the draft. It obvious that he would be first and picked up by Peshawar Zalmi.
Each team got a total of 9 players from the day-1’s draft. These players were taken from three categories Platinum, Diamond and Gold. Owners started picking cricketers from Platinum draft and then followed Diamond and Gold. Shahid Afridi (Peshawar Zalmi), Shoaib Malik (Karachi Kings), Shane Watson (Islamabad United), Kevin Pietersen (Quetta Gladiators) and Chris Gayle (Lahore Qalandars) were the first drafted players for all 5 franchises.
One of the interest events happened during the draft when Mohammad Amir was picked up by Karachi Kings. Amir is returning to cricket field after facing 5 year ban and would be participating in HBL Pakistan Super League 2016 for team Karachi.
Let’s have a look at the complete list of players taken by teams on the day-1 of first PSL draft.
Players drafted in various categories on PSL draft day-1
| Team | Platinum | Diamond | Gold |
| Islamabad United | Shane Watson, Andre Russell, Misbah Ul Haq | Samuel Badree, Mohammad Irfan, Brad Haddin | Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Sami, Khalid Latif |
| Karachi Kings | Shoaib Malik, Shakib Al Hasan, Sohail Tanvir | Imad Wasim, Ravi Bopara, Lendl Simmons | Mohammad Amir, Bilawal Bhatti, James Vince |
| Lahore Qalandars | Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Umar Akmal | Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Shoaib Maqsood | Mustafizur Rahman, Kevon Cooper, Cameron Delport |
| Peshawar Zalmi | Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Darren Sammy | Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Chris Jordan | Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Khan, Jim Allenby |
| Quetta Gladiators | Kevin Pietersen, Sarfraz Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad | Anwar Ali, Jason Holder, Luke Wright | Zulfiqar Babar, Umar Gul, Elton Chigumbura |
Well the draft is not over yet as teams franchise will get together with tournament officials on 22nd December to continue the players draft with remaining two categories Silver and Emerging. On day-2 of PSL draft, each team will pick 7 more cricketers (5 from Silver and 2 from Emerging) categories to make up their squad of 16-member for inaugural Pakistan Super League edition.
