Introduction
Lahore is perhaps one of the most popular cities and hence, it is obvious that there will be a team representing the city. The Qalandars is captained by Pakistani cricketer Sohail Akhtar and is coached by Aaqib Javed, who happens to be an ex-Pakistani cricketer.
Interestingly, the team always ended at the bottom of the table in the first four PSLs, but then reached the final of the 2020 edition. But there, they lost the match to the Karachi Kings who went on to have their first-ever PSL title.
Owner(s)
The current owner of the team is QALCO (Qatar Lubricants Co. Ltd.). At the time its rights were sold to QALCO for 25 million USD, it was the second most expensive team after the Karachi Kings. QALCO, as you might have guessed, is a Qatar based company specializing in lubricants and machine oils.
Home Ground
Their home ground is the famous Gaddafi Stadium. Owned by the PCB and operated by the Central Punjab Cricket Association, the stadium has been named after Libyan leader Muammar Al Gaddafi. PCB’s headquarters are also located in this stadium complex. The PCB did think about renaming the ground after the death of the Libyan leader in the year 2011, but it is still known by its original name.
Facts About Lahore Qalandars
- They share a fierce rivalry with the Karachi Kings.
- Most successful captains have been Sohail Akhtar and Mohammad Hafeez.
- They have been the most successful against the Quetta Gladiators and  in terms of percentage of matches won.
- While on the other hand, they have been quite ineffective against Islamabad United.
- Fakhar Zaman is the highest run-scorer with about 1000+ runs to his name.
- Shaheen Afridi is the best bowler in terms of the total number of wickets taken (28 wickets).
Performance of Lahore Qalandars in Pakistan Super League
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PSL 2020
They were able to play all their matches but still came in third on the table. They won and lost an equal number of matches out of the ten. They won four out of five last league matches and secured ten points with a net run rate of -0.072.
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PSL 2019
By far one of their worst seasons since they came in last out of the six teams. They did have an equal number of points as Multan Sultans but had a far worse net run rate. Out of the ten matches that they played, they won three and lost seven.
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PSL 2018
They were a distant last this team as they had just six points. Their net run rate was also the poorest of all and stood at -0.931. They won three matches while lost seven games. Had they been able to win a couple of matches more, the situation would have been different.
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PSL 2017
In this season too, they finished last. There were five teams in this season and they were two points behind the Islamabad United who had eight points. Since the league had a few times, there weren’t more matches to rework on their bad performance and hence, they came last.
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PSL 2016
In the very first season too they were at the bottom of the points table for the league matches. This time however they had an equal number of points as the Karachi Kings who too had lost six and won two matches. Incidentally, both these teams lost four out of their last five matches.
