The journey of Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League 2020 is most likely to end during the group stage as their key match against Multan Sultans had been abandoned without even toss.
On the points table, the Multan Sultans are at the top with 12 points from eight games and have qualified for the first playoff. They have so far won five games, lost one while two of their matches produced no result.
On the other hand, the Quetta Gladiators have bagged only 7 points in nine matches. An abandoned match means three teams could possibly tie up at 9 points including Quetta, Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United. But the difference between the net run rate of Quetta and other two teams is quite high and Quetta would need a 100-plus run win to overcome this deficit which looks quite impossible. So a washout would virtually ends Quetta hopes to continue their title defence.
Squads:
Multan Sultans: Shan Masood (captain), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irfan, James Vince, Junaid Khan, Moeen Ali, Rilee Rossouw, Zeeshan Ashraf, Ravi Bopara, Sohail Tanvir, Ali Shafiq, Khushdil Shah, Usman Qadir, Fabian Allen, Mohammad Ilyas, Rohail Nazir, Imran Tahir, Bilawal Bhatti and Wayne Madsen.
Quetta Gladiators: Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Nawaz, Shane Watson, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hasnain, Ahsan Ali, Naseem Shah, Jason Roy, Ben Cutting, Fawad Ahmed, Sohail Khan, Tymal Mills, Abdul Nasir, Arish Ali Khan, Azam Khan, Keemo Paul, Khurram Manzoor and Zahid Mehmood.