2018 Pakistan Super League players draft

^[1] The 2018 Pakistan Super League player draft was the player draft for third season of the Pakistan Super League, held on 12 November 2017 in Lahore.^[2][3] Each franchise was allowed to pick 16 players from total 501 players; including Pakistani and foreign cricketers who took part in the draft. They divided into five different categories; Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging and Supplementary.^[4] This was Multan Sultans' inaugural season, they were allowed to pick 9 players prior to the draft.

The list for the names of 9 retained players in each five teams was announced on 5 October 2017. The new team Multan Sultans picked their 9 pre-draft players from the players released by other franchises, and their names were announced on 10 October.^[5][6][7]

On 3 October 2017, Shahid Afridi's transfer from Zalmi to Kings was confirmed, occupying one Gold and two Silver picks, which was named as the biggest trade of the season.^[8] It was also announced on 5 October that the gold pick Mohammad Rizwan had been picked by Kings in trade for the gold pick Sohail Khan to Qalandars.^[9] On 6 October, it was reported that United bought Iftikhar Ahmed from Zalmi in exchange of supplementary pick in second round of draft.^[10]

Further players; who played in 2017 PSL, were released by their franchises, who are:^[11][10]

On 30 September, Chairman PCB Najam Sethi announced that following players are the new top signings for the league:^[12][13]

On 14 October, some more names for the new signed in players were revealed:^[14]

It was reported on 20 October that the two players from the China national cricket team were signed in by franchise Zalmi:^[15][16]

• Li Jian
• Zhang Yufei

A total of 501 players; 193 Pakistani and 308 overseas were a part of the draft. Earlier, each franchise had a purse of US$1.2 million, but then PCB decided to increase the salary cap of each franchise by US$25,000 on 13 November. They were allowed to stack up their squad with a maximum of 21 players by picking them from the categories in following order with a varying range and limit in price:^[17]

• one player each from:
  • Platinum; US$140,000–230,000
  • Diamond; minimum price of US$70,000–85,000
  • Gold; US$50,000–60,000
• two players each from:
  • Silver; US$22,000–33,000
  • Emerging; US$10,000–12,000
• up to five players from Supplementary Rounds; they could be called in as replacements for those players who don't agree to play in Pakistan^[18][19]

Following players were picked by the franchises in the draft:^[20]

Following players were picked in PSL replacement draft.^{[21][22][23][24]}