Pakistani cricketers Naseem Shah and Fakhar Zaman's names also included in BBL draft

Fast bowler Naseem Shah and left-handed batsman Fakhar Zaman are among 75 more Pakistani players who have now been added to the draft of the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League. The step has come after appending nominations of Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Osama Mir, and Zaman Khan, who all had long-term regularity with BBL. In a statement, the BBL said that 64 male cricketers and 11 female cricketers from Pakistan have been included in the overseas draft in BBL and WBBL this year.

Naseem picked up 24 wickets from 28 T20 matches for Pakistan with the personal best bowling record of 3/21. In it, he left his mark with an average of 32.75 and an economy rate of 7.69. On the other side, Zaman has scored 1848 runs in 92 T20 matches for Pakistan at an average of 22.81 and a strike rate of 132.94 with 11 half-centuries.

If one leaves out of consideration Naseem and Zaman, the current Test captains to figure among Pakistan's male cricketers in the BBL draft are Shan Masood and Saim Ayub. For the women, it is newly appointed Pakistan T20 captain Fatima Sana, along with Nida Dar, Diana Baig, Alia Riaz, Tuba Hasan, and Syeda Aruba Shah entering into the WBBL Overseas Draft.

The WBBL and the BBL drafts are scheduled to take place on September 1. According to reports, this year's draft will be split into four rounds, where each of the clubs gets one pick in every round. The nominated players are drafted in platinum, gold, silver, and bronze categories. During a draft process, all eight clubs have to at least choose two players. The WBBL starts from October 27 to December 1; then comes the turn of the BBL from December 15 to January 27, 2025.