Team: Multan Sultans
City: Multan, Punjab
Ground: Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan
Number of Titles: 1 (2021)
Who Are Multan Sultans?
Multan Sultans are a Pakistan Super League franchise and they were the latest team to be entered in the competition. While Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Quetta Gladiators, Peshawar Zalmi and Lahore Qalanders were all in the PSL from 2016 when the competition started, Multan entered at a later date.
Having been founded in 2017, the Sultans entered the PSL from 2018 onwards and have continued to be part of the tournament since then. Multan is in southern Pakistan and Alamgir Khan Tareen led a consortium to buy the club in that year before eventually becoming the sole owner.
The team play in a blue, green and white strip and they have been coached by Andy Flower and captained by Mohammad Rizwan in the past. They have steadily improved as a team and were able to claim a maiden victory in 2021 to become PSL champions.
The Pakistan Super League History of Multan Sultans
The Multan Sultans’ first season was in 2018, with Shoab Malik being the captain on that occasion. Tom Moody was the first ever Head Coach, while Wasim Akram was appointed as the director. The team made a promising start by winning their first ever match against Peshawar Zalmi by seven wickets but were only able to finish fifth in the overall standings.
The Sultans also found life in the Pakistan Super League tough going in 2019 when they were only able to finish fifth. Despite this, there were some encouraging performances and Shoab Malik was able to score as many as 266 runs, with Shahid Afridi able to take ten wickets.
In 2020, matters improved on the pitch and this was partly down to Andy Flower taking over as coach. Shan Masood was appointed as team captain and it was the first year that the side reached the playoff stage of the Pakistan Super League.
On 14 November 2020, the Sultans played Karachi Kings in a thrilling game which ended in a tie. The clash went to a Super Over which the Kings won and it meant that Multan went on to play Lahore Qalanders in the Eliminator 2 which saw the latter win by 25 runs.
The 2021 Pakistan Super League season was where things finally clicked for the Multan Sultans and they were crowned champions after an eventful campaign. During the regular season, they won five and lost five of their ten matches, before clashing with Islamabad United in the playoffs where a 31 run victory was achieved.
This put Multan in their first ever final and they didn’t disappoint their supporters when making history to win the 2021 Pakistan Super League Grand Final. A 47-run victory saw the team overcome Peshawar Zalmi as they scored 206 runs in their 20 overs and that included an unbeaten 65 from Sohaib Maqsood.
Who Holds the Multan Sultans Records?
At the time of writing, there are two players who have broken the 1,000 run barrier for Multan Sultans. Shan Masood has scored 1083 runs and that has been achieved in 35 matches, while Mohammad Rizwan has been able to muster 1046 runs and those were achieved in the space of two seasons.
Imran Tahir has been able to pass the 50-wicket mark as the Multan Sultans top ever bowler, with this being achieved in 37 matches between 2018-22.
