LAHORE: The curtain fell on Pakistan Super League 2026 on Sunday with Peshawar Zalmi winning their second title and Babar Azam lifting his first trophy as captain. On April 30, we reviewed the biggest disappointments from the four sides that failed to reach the play-offs — Lahore Qalandars, Karachi Kings, Quetta Gladiators and Rawalpindiz.

In Part 2 of this series, it is time to turn the spotlight on the players who failed to live up to their standards and expectations from the four sides that did reach the play-offs — Peshawar Zalmi, Hyderabad Kingsmen, Islamabad United and Multan Sultans.

The difference between this group and those profiled in Part 1 is significant — these players were part of winning campaigns. Their underperformance, in several cases, was masked by team success. But it deserves examination nonetheless, because in a competition as fine-margined as T20 cricket, the gap between what these players delivered and what they were capable of may well have been the difference between a play-off exit and a title.

AAMER JAMAL (Peshawar Zalmi)

There is a delicious irony at the heart of Aamer Jamal’s PSL 2026 story. His failure with bat and ball in the first half of the league stage — five matches, 25 runs and three wickets — proved to be a blessing in disguise for Peshawar Zalmi. His replacement, Aaron Hardie, single-handedly earned the title with a four-wicket haul and an unbeaten half-century in the final. Had Aamer performed, Hardie might never have played. Had Hardie never played, Zalmi might not be champions.

In his five matches, Aamer scored 17 not out and took one for 43 against Rawalpindiz, 6 not out and one for seven against Hyderabad Kingsmen, none for 28 against Karachi Kings, a duck and none for 10 against Lahore Qalandars, and 2 not out and one for 29 against Multan Sultans in his final appearance on April 12.

The historical record makes this season’s output particularly puzzling.

In 2025 for Karachi Kings, Aamer contributed 108 runs and took five wickets. In 2024 for Peshawar Zalmi, he scored 138 runs and took five wickets. In 2023 for Karachi Kings, he scored 31 runs and took seven wickets. The PSL has never been a particularly happy hunting ground for an all-rounder who made his name in red-ball cricket on Pakistan’s last tour of Australia — and PSL 2026 continued that disappointing trend.

The one consolation for Aamer — and it is a genuine one — is that his replacement’s brilliance means Peshawar Zalmi will likely look back on his absence as the moment their title was won. Re-signed for PKR19 million ($63,000), he will be hoping PSL 2027 tells a very different story.

MOHAMMAD HARIS (Peshawar Zalmi)

Mohammad Haris is one of the most naturally gifted attacking batters in Pakistan cricket. When he is in full flow — as he was in PSL 2023 when he scored 350 runs at a strike rate of 186 — he is as exciting and destructive as any batter in the competition. PSL 2026 should have been the tournament in which he announced himself as a genuine match-winner at the highest level. Instead, it was a tournament of missed opportunities and squandered starts.

He achieved an impressive strike rate of 177.58 — the second highest in his side after Abdul Samad — but 206 runs from nine matches fell well short of what was expected from a batter entrusted to open alongside Babar Azam. His top score of 47 came in Zalmi’s opening match against Rawalpindiz. Three scores in the 30s — 38 against Multan Sultans and 35 each against Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United — provided glimpses of his potential, but nothing beyond that.

The frustration is sharpened by context. With Babar Azam scoring 588 runs and Kusal Mendis 550 at the top of the order, Haris had every opportunity to play longer, more impactful innings from a position of comfort and security. Instead, he repeatedly threw away decent starts — a pattern that suggests he has not yet mastered the art of converting potential into consistency, despite 6 ODIs and 35 T20Is for Pakistan.

His journey from 166 runs in five matches in 2022 to 350 at a strike rate of 186 in 2023, followed by a dip to 84 runs in four matches after moving to Lahore Qalandars in 2024, and a partial recovery to 255 runs in 2025, traces the arc of a talented cricketer who has not yet found the consistency his ability demands. His final-day dismissal in the opening over — when Zalmi needed their openers to absorb pressure — summed up a tournament that promised more than it delivered.

Mohammad Haris was bought by Peshawar Zalmi for PKR20.2 million ($79,000).

GLENN MAXWELL (Hyderabad Kingsmen)

Few players arrive at a franchise tournament carrying the weight of expectation that Glenn Maxwell brought to Hyderabad Kingsmen. A T20 and 50-over World Cup winner with Australia, arguably the most destructive middle-order batter in world cricket on his day, Maxwell’s maiden PSL appearance was supposed to be a statement – of Kingsmen’s ambition, their competitiveness and their intent.

What Pakistan’s cricket followers got instead was one magnificent performance — eight fours and three sixes in a 37-ball 70 against Rawalpindiz in the crucial final league match that sealed Kingsmen’s play-off qualification — and eight matches of relative anonymity around it. He scored 21 not out off nine balls against Islamabad United in his second match and precious little of note in the remainder. His final tournament figures — 99 runs from eight innings of nine matches at a strike rate of 143.47 and five wickets — were a significant under-delivery by his standards.

And yet context matters.

Maxwell’s reputation alone forced opposition coaches to devote significant tactical planning to containing him throughout the competition. Even when he failed to score, his presence at the crease generated uncertainty. Kingsmen’s opponents invested heavily in keeping him quiet — and largely succeeded. But that investment came at a cost, creating opportunities for others that they might not otherwise have had.

Maxwell was signed by Kingsmen for PKR23.4 million ($84,000). He will almost certainly return to the PSL — and on surfaces that suit his game, against bowling attacks less forensically prepared for him, the result could be very different.

SAIM AYUB (Hyderabad Kingsmen)

Saim Ayub was the PSL’s most expensive player at PKR12.6 million ($450,000) — by far the largest individual contract in the competition. The expectation that came with that investment was not unreasonable.

In 2023, he scored 341 runs for Peshawar Zalmi. In 2024, he scored 345 runs and took eight wickets. He is, on his day, one of the most flamboyant and exciting batters in Pakistan cricket, capable of single-handedly changing the complexion of a match.

PSL 2026 was comfortably his worst season. He ended with 258 runs — the fourth highest for Hyderabad Kingsmen — and six wickets from 13 matches, at a strike rate of 119.44 against a T20I career strike rate of 135.91. That gap between his natural scoring-rate and his actual output in this competition tells its own story about a batter who never truly settled or found his rhythm throughout the 38-day tournament.

His season’s best of 54 came in a losing cause in the final against Peshawar Zalmi – a half-century that ultimately only helped his side to 129 all out. His next best scores were 38 and 35 against Islamabad United. For a player of his talent and price tag, the competition passed him by almost entirely.

The 23-year-old is too good a cricketer to be judged on a single season. But the evidence from PSL 2026 raises legitimate questions about whether playing for a franchise competing for the first time in an unfamiliar environment — away from his home ground in Peshawar — was the right strategic decision at this stage of his development. At PKR12.6 million, however, it is an offer that was always going to be difficult to refuse.

FAHEEM ASHRAF (Islamabad United)

Faheem Ashraf’s PSL record is one of the finest of any all-rounder in the competition’s history. When Islamabad United won their second title in 2018, he contributed 129 runs and 21 wickets. In their successful 2024 campaign, he scored 100 runs and took six wickets. In 2023, he scored 215 runs and took eight wickets. In 2025, 121 runs and nine wickets.

Across four campaigns with Islamabad United, he has been one of their most reliable and consistent match-winners.

PSL 2026 was, by those standards, a significant disappointment — 73 runs and nine wickets in a campaign that ended most painfully. With the opportunity to earn Islamabad United a place in the final in Eliminator Two against Hyderabad Kingsmen, Faheem holed out to Hassan Khan as Hunain Shah defended six runs off the last over to hand Kingsmen a two-run victory. In a match of such fine margins, a player of Faheem’s experience and record might have been expected to be the match-winner. He was not.

At PKR85 million ($305,000) — the most expensive of the eight players profiled in this feature — the gap between investment and return was the starkest of all.

HAIDER ALI (Islamabad United)

After the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020, the great West Indian fast bowler Ian Bishop identified Haider Ali as one of three future stars of world cricket alongside Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk and South Africa’s Gerald Coetzee. The other two have gone on to fulfil that promise at international level. Haider, unfortunately, has not — and PSL 2026 did little to suggest that is about to change.

His T20I debut — a half-century against England at Old Trafford in September 2020 — remains his most celebrated international innings. In 35 T20Is since, he has scored 505 runs with three half-centuries. The potential that Bishop identified is clearly there. The consistency to match it remains elusive.

PSL 2026 was supposed to be the platform on which Haider reignited his international prospects. He ended with 103 runs from seven innings of 11 matches at an average of 17.16 and a strike rate of 132 — his season’s best a 31 against Hyderabad Kingsmen in Eliminator Two.

In 2025, he scored 77 runs from eight matches for the same franchise. In 2024, 103 runs from seven matches. The numbers have barely moved across three seasons, which is perhaps the most damning observation of all.

Haider was bought by Islamabad United for PKR15 million ($54,000). At that price, the investment in his potential remains justified. But potential without delivery has a shelf life — and for Haider Ali, that clock is ticking.

MOHAMMAD NAWAZ (Multan Sultans)

When Multan Sultans reflect on PSL 2026, one question will linger uncomfortably — what if Mohammad Nawaz had better utilised his vast international experience and delivered more than 54 runs and six wickets from 11 matches? His inability to score at the required rate in the death overs and his failure to claim vital wickets in the middle overs cost the side dearly in critical matches. They won six and lost five — eliminated in Eliminator One against Hyderabad Kingsmen.

The historical record makes this season all the more baffling.

In 2023 for Quetta Gladiators, Nawaz contributed a remarkable 314 runs and nine wickets from 10 matches — the kind of all-round performance that justifies his PKR61.6 million ($221,000) price tag. In 2022 for the same franchise, 78 runs and six wickets from five matches. In 2024 for Karachi Kings, 88 runs and two wickets. In 2025 for Islamabad United, 44 runs and four wickets.

His top score of 18 and best bowling figures of one for 22 — both against Hyderabad Kingsmen — reflect a player who never found his rhythm in a competition that, given his experience and knowledge of local conditions, he should have dominated. For a player of his calibre, PSL 2026 was an opportunity wasted.

MOHAMMAD WASIM JUNIOR (Multan Sultans)

Of all the underperformances profiled in this two-part series, Mohammad Wasim Junior’s is perhaps the most difficult to explain.

Fast bowler, 24 years old, a veteran of two Tests, 27 ODIs and 34 T20Is, with superior knowledge of the Lahore and Karachi conditions in which every match of this competition was played. And yet – seven wickets from 10 matches at an economy rate of 10.98.

To put that in perspective, his team-mate Peter Siddle – a 41-year-old playing his first PSL season, unfamiliar with local conditions and operating well beyond what most would consider a professional fast bowler’s natural career span – finished as Multan’s most successful bowler with 13 wickets at an economy rate of 8.87.

The gap between the two is not just a number — it is an indictment.

Wasim twice took two wickets — two for 37 against Hyderabad Kingsmen and two for 42 against Islamabad United — but remained wicketless in five matches. His most expensive figures of none for 46 came against Hyderabad Kingsmen in Karachi, where the debutants chased down 214 with three balls to spare.

The year-on-year record underlines the regression.

In 2022 and 2023 for Islamabad United, he took eight wickets in each season. In 2024 and 2025 for Quetta Gladiators, he took 11 and 10 wickets respectively. PSL 2026 — seven wickets at an economy rate approaching 11 — was his worst return in four seasons and by a considerable margin.

Wasim was bought by Multan Sultans for PKR41 million ($147,000). At 24, with an established international record, he has the talent and the time to recover from this season. But the urgency is real — a player of his age and potential cannot afford to be out-bowled by a 41-year-old in the same team.

The combined cost of the eight players profiled in Part 2: PKR277.8 million ($997,000).

The combined message: talent without consistency, experience without execution and potential without delivery are the defining features of Pakistan cricket’s most persistent and frustrating problem — at franchise level and national level alike.