KARACHI: The 2017 champions Peshawar Zalmi and 2019 title-winners Quetta Gladiators will come face to face in their Pakistan Super League (PSL) season seven kickoff at the National Stadium Karachi today (Friday). The match begins at 7pm. The Peshawar Zalmis will be without skipper Wahab Riaz, who is currently in isolation after his test for COVID-19 came back positive. Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik will captain the Zalmi on Friday's show. The two sides have established themselves as formidable opponents throughout PSL's history. Both teams have met 17 times and Zalmis have a small edge with nine victories against Quetta Gladiators' eight. Four matches have been played between the two teams at the National Stadium, with each team claiming two victories. Apart from Wahab Riaz's injury, Zalmi will be without Kamran Akmal and pacer Arshad Iqbal, who are both in quarantine following positive COVID tests a few days ago. Zalmi had the upper hand in the previous two seasons, having swept all four matches, two each in a season. Quetta struggled to compete at full strength throughout the last two seasons. Quetta, on the other hand, appear more balanced this time around, and their pace bowling, in particular, may rattle Zalmi's powerful batting line-up. Sarfaraz Ahmed, the Quetta Gladiators' skipper, recently praised his team's bowling during a news conference. They have speedster Mohammad Hasnain, who just had an impressive BBL debut, confounding the batters with his remarkable speed.
