Team: Lahore Qalanders
City: Lahore, Punjab
Ground: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Number of Titles: 1 (2022)
Who Are Lahore Qalanders?
The Lahore Qalanders are a leading Pakistan Super League club who have been in operation since 2015 when the PSL was formed. Having taken a while to find their feet, they recently broke their duck when winning the 2022 title and they play in a bright green shirt as their home kit.
The Qalanders are owned by Fawad Rana, with the city of Lahore represented by this team and they were the most second-expensive franchise during the initial bidding. The Rana brothers are part of an international company that own the franchise, with the team initially finishing bottom of the standings for the first four seasons.
The Pakistan Super League History of Lahore Qalanders
Lahore Qalanders have gone from zero to hero as far as the Pakistan Super League is concerned. Between 2016-2019, there was little to write home about, with the team finishing bottom of the section on four consecutive occasions. In the 2019 campaign, there were just three victories achieved in ten games, although brighter times were ahead.
In the 2020 season, the Qalanders enjoyed a much-needed improvement and there were five wins and five defeats in the ten games played. This earned them third place in the overall standings and they were then able to make their bow in the play-offs.
Lahore then clashed with Peshawar Zalmi and the former were able to secure a five wicket victory in Karachi. They then went up against the regular season winners Multan Sultans and they enjoyed a twenty-five run victory before reaching the final where Karachi Kings were able to achieve a five-wicket triumph.
The 2021 season saw the Qalanders rocked back on their heels and the 50% win rate during the regular season wasn’t enough to qualify for the play-offs, although the team were back on track in the 2022 Pakistan Super League when winning six of their ten games to finish second in the standings.
Lahore then lost to the Multan Sultans in the preliminary stage of the play-offs before narrowly overcoming Islamabad United by six runs. In the final, the Qalanders were pitched against Multan once again and this time made no mistake to claim their first ever PSL title.
Who Holds the Lahore Qalanders Records?
Fakhar Zaman is comfortably the top run scorer and it might be several seasons before anyone manages to rack up the same amount of runs that the Pakistani batsman has managed over the past few years. He has scored 1936 runs in 62 matches since making his debut since 2017.
Sohail Akhtar has represented the Lahore Qalanders since 2018 and he has managed to score 774 runs at the time of writing. Mohammad Hafeez has scored 679 runs and they have been scored in 27 matches, with some impressive bowlers having turned out for this team.
Shaheen Afridi has been a reliable source of wickets and he has managed to take 61 between 2018 and the present day, with Haris Rauf having achieved 37 wickets from 2018 onwards and there are several other top wicket takers that have impressed including South African David Wiese who has 21 wickets since 2019.
