Karachi Kings

Franchise history

The Karachi Kings were created when the decision was taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board to have its own franchise based T20 league. On 3 December 2015, the PCB unveiled the owners of five city-based franchises. The Karachi franchise was sold to the ARY Media Group for $26 million for a ten-year period making it the most expensive franchise in the tournament.

2016 Season

Kings kicked off their campaign with an easy win against Lahore Qalandars at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium with Mohammad Amir taking a hat-trick.

The team won only one more match during the group stage of the tournament, finishing with two wins and six losses. They finished fourth in the league table however, above Lahore Qalandars with a better head-to-head record and qualified for the league play-off stage.

Ravi Bopara replaced Shoaib Malik as the team captain ahead of the qualifier match against Islamabad United. After being restricted to their lowest score of the tournament (111), Karachi were defeated by nine wickets in the 15th over and were eliminated from the tournament.

2017 season

Kumar Sangakkara and Babar Azam joined Karachi for the second season of the PSL whilst Azhar Mehmood signed as a coach. Sohail Tanvir was traded for Chris Gayle of Lahore Qalandars during the off-season trade window. During the 2017 PSL players draft Karachi retained Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Ravi Bopara, Mohammad Amir, Sohail Khan, Saifullah Bangash, and Shahzaib Hasan. The team added nine players to the squad, including Kieron Pollard, Mahela Jayawardena and Ryan McLaren.

In their first game, Karachi Kings lost to Peshawar Zalmi by 7 wickets in one-sided affair that saw them post a target of just 118 in their 20 overs. In the following game, against the Quetta Gladiators, the Kings failed to defend 160 and lost by 7 wickets yet again. Even as the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Kings continued their losing streak. Facing a loss this time to arch-rivals, Lahore Qalandars. The match was closely fought and a partnership of 101 runs between veterans Kumar Sangakkara and Shoaib Malik almost won it for the Kings. But in the end they fell short of the target of 180 by 7 runs. But in the next game, against defending champions Islamabad United. the team finally managed to put themselves on the points table. The win came through the Duckworth-Lewis method as the Kings were ahead of the par score by 8 runs when returning rain forced to abandon the already 13-over match. In their final game of the Sharjah leg, the Kings continued their winning streak to get past Peshawar Zalmi in a thrilling contest. Setting up a target of 175, the Kings had the Zalmis reduced to 69-6 before Shahid Afridi and Darren Sammy combined in a 70-run partnership that almost won the game for the Zalmis. However, the King's bowling prevailed in the end to give their team a 9-run victory.

As the tournament moved back to Dubai, the Kings couldn't continue their winning streak and lost to table-toppers, Quetta Gladiators, by 6 wickets. Batting first, the Kings set a target of 155 runs, which they were unable to defend despite a 3-wicket-over from pacer Sohail Khan. This loss pushed the Karachi Kings to the bottom of the table once again. However, in the next game, which had become a must-win for both participating teams, the Kings managed to prevail over the Lahore Qalandars in a thrilling last-ball finish. Chasing 156, the team required 10 runs from the last two balls, which Kieron Pollard surpassed with back-to-back sixes to keep his team alive in the tournament.

Karachi then had to protect their net run rate in the very next league match, against Islambad United, to qualify for the eliminator. In a rain-marred game, restricted to 15-overs-a-side, they were set a target of 124 by Islamabad and they had to score at least 111 runs to qualify for the eliminator. Gayle set the tempo through his blitzing knock of 44 off a mere 17 balls. The game was superbly finshed by none other than Pollard himself on the second last ball of the match via a boundary. Gayle's knock and Pollard's finishing helped Karachi win this encounter against Islamabad.

Consequently, Karachi again faced Islamabad in the eliminator. In what proved to be a thrilling game, Karachi, batting first, scored a measly 126 getting all out in the process. Islamabad was set to win and qualify for the second play off. However, that was not the case as the second innings proved. The Karachi bowlers outshone the Islamabad bowlers with Muhammad Amir, Imad Wasim and Usama Mir each picking up three wickets. Islamabad were all out for a mere 82 runs, their lowest in the tournament and the second-lowest in the tournament's history. Hence, the defending champions were knocked out and Karachi lived another day in the tournament and qualified for the second play-off.

Team identity

The team name and logo were revealed on 21 December 2015. The logo features a lion with Karachi Kings written below in white and gold colors. At the ceremony, team owner Salman Iqbal said that the logo and the theme of the team represents the true spirit and resilience of Karachi. The team's primary jersey color is blue and gold. The jersey also incorporates the roaring lion logo in the bottom left of the shirt.Aj sports (a sports manufacturing company) is team's kit manufacturer.

Bahria Town the largest real-estate developers and Investors in Pakistan and the largest private housing society in Asia is the title sponsor for the franchise. Besides Bahria Town other sponsors are Summit Bank, The Arkadians, Oye Hoye, Pepsi, Brighto Paints and Shield Corporation Ltd. Naya Nazimabad is their official main principle partner for 2017 season. Brigde power is platinum sponsor. Cotton & Cotton signed an agreement as their official apparel partner in December 2016. Vital tea is tea partner. Print media partner is Pakistan Observer. Titans is team's Memorabilia partner. The anthem of the team titled "Dhan Dhana Dhan Hoga Re" is sung by Shehzad Roy.

Current squad

Players with international caps are listed in bold.

Captains

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 7 March 2017