Sialkot set to defend Quaid-e-Azam Trophy title

The 68th edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will begin on Monday, 6 October in four cities and across five venues as 10 regional teams including defending champions Sialkot look to fight out for the red-ball glory in Pakistan.

Sialkot squeezed past Peshawar in a tense one-wicket win to bag the title in the previous edition led by Amad Butt at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi.

The two teams will again come face to face in the opening round at the Imran Khan Stadium, Peshawar as four other matches will also begin in Abbottabad, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The PCB has announced a winner’s prize of PKR 7.5 million, while the runners up will collect PKR 4 million. In a first, player of the match in each league match will also get PKR 25,000.

Player of the final will be awarded PKR 100k, while best bowler, batter, wicket-keeper and player of the tournament will be awarded PKR 250k each.

Among the 10 participating teams, FATA, Faisalabad, Karachi Blues and Multan have qualified from the Hanif Mohammad Trophy, while Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Sialkot, Lahore Whites and Islamabad were among the top performing teams in the last edition.

In the 46-match tournament a number of fixtures including the final are also set to be live-streamed on the PCB YouTube Channel in order to bring the fans closer to the action unfolding in domestic cricket.

In the opening round, the fixture at the Imran Khan Stadium, Peshawar and Diamond Cricket Ground, Islamabad will be live-streamed on the PCB YouTube Channel.

As part of player development in first-class cricket, all teams are required to field at least one U21 player in their playing XI in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2025-26. The team rosters of all 10 regions are given below:

Note: Teams can pick players from national duty roster as well as reserves before the start of each round if required and when available.

Abbottabad:

Fakhar Zaman (captain), Khalid Usman (vc), Ahmed Khan, Aqib Khan, Israr Hussain, Khayam Khan (wicket-keeper), Mehrooz Rasheed, Mohammad Adil, Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Suleman (Guest Player), Muhammad Arif, Shahnawaz Dahani (Guest Player), Shahzaib Khan (U21), Umair Badshah and Yasir Khan (Guest Player)

National Duty: Kamran Ghulam

Reserves: Adil Naz, Aftab Ahmed, Shujah Zaheer (U21), Mansoor Ali, Mohsin Junaid, Muhammad Riaz Ullah, Shahab Khan and Zain Ishaq,

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Bahawalpur

Saifullah Bangash (captain, wicket-keeper, Guest Player), Muhammad Imran Randhawa (vc), Ali Hamza Waseem, Gulfam Aziz, Mehran Sanwal, Mohammad Alamgir, Mohammad Ammar (U21), Mohammad Azab, Mohammad Faizan Zafar, Mohammad Junaid, Mohammad Shahriyar, Mubasir khan (Guest Player), Rana Burhan Basharat, Saad Khan (Guest Player) and Salman Hassan

Reserves: Ali Afzal, Ali Shabbir (U21), Khaqan Bashir, Mohammad Akram, Mohammad Sudais, Mohammad Umair, Mohammad Younis and Zaman Khan (Guest Player)

Faisalabad

Muhammad Irfan Khan (captain), Faheem Ashraf (vc), Abdul Samad, Ahmed Safi Abdullah, Ali Shan (wicket-keeper), Asad Raza, Asim Ali Nasir, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Faham-ul-Haq (U21), Hasan Raza (Guest Player), Mudassar Zunair, Muhammad Awais Zafar, Sameer Saqib, Shehzad Gul and Taimur Khan

National Duty: Khurram Shahzad

Reserves: Abdullah Zubair, Ali Asfand (U21), Ibtisam ur Rehman (U21), Mohammad Faizan, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Saqib, Raees Ahmed, Shahid Ali and Umar Ali

FATA

Khushdil Shah (captain), Muhammad Sarwar Afridi (vc), Akif Javed, Haseebullah (Guest Player), Hayatullah, Mohammad Farooq (U21), Mohammad Naeem, Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Waseem Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Rehan Afridi (wicket-keeper), Salman Khan, Sameen Gul, Shahid Aziz and Zahid Mehmood (Guest Player)

National Duty: Asif Afridi and Shaheen Shah Afridi

Reserves: Adnan Khan, Afaq Afridi, Arshadullah, Haroon Sadaqat, Jamshaid Khan, Khyal Maan, Muhammad Tauqeer, Sirajuddin and Usama Ahmed

Islamabad

Hasan Nawaz (captain), Abdul Faseeh (Guest Player), Faizan Riaz, Hammad Saddique, Haris Rauf, Jawad Ali (Guest Player), Kaleem Dil, Mohammad Hammad Khan, Mohammad Nawaz (Guest Player), Musa Khan, Nusratullah, Raja Hamza Waheed (U21), Sarmad Bhatti, Shamyl Hussain (U21) and Shayan Shaikh

National Duty: Rohail Nazir

Reserves: Farmanullah Khan, Mohammad Nadeem, Mohammad Qaiser, Murtaza Jamal, Naseerullah Khan, Rizwan Ali, Salman Khan and Shahid Islam (U21)

Karachi Blues

Rameez Aziz (captain), Mir Hamza (vc), Abdullah Fazal, Danish Aziz, Fahad Amin (U21), Haroon Arshad (U21), Mohammad Asghar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Muhammad Umar, Mustaq Ahmad (Guest Player), Omair Bin Yuosuf, Saad Baig (U21, Guest Player, wicket-keeper), Saim Ayub, Saqib Khan and Usman Khan

National Duty: Abrar Ahmed, Saud Shakeel and Shan Masood

Reserves: Arif Yaqoob, Asadullah Hamza, Ashiq Ali, Fawad Alam, Maaz Khurram Amin, Mohammad Hamza Sohail, Mohammad Tariq Khan, Mohammad Usman Rahim and Sarfaraz Ahmed

Lahore Whites

Saad Naseem (captain), Abid Ali, Ahmad Bashir, Ali Zaryab Asif, Attyab Ahmed, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Hussain Talat, Junaid Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rameez Jnr, Mohammad Salman, Naseem Shah, Tayyab Tahir, Ubaid Shah (U21) and Umar Siddiq (Guest Player)

National Duty: Aamir Jamal, Babar Azam and Salman Ali Agha

Reserves: Asadullah, Ahmed Daniyal Hasan Rizwan, Imran Dogar, Mohammad Ahsan, Mohammad Faiq, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Mohib Bhatti, Muhammad Akhlaq, Obaid Shahid, Qasim Akram (Guest Player) and Shehbaz Javed, Usama Tariq

Multan

Zain Abbas (captain), Sharoon Siraj (vc), Aamer Yamin (subject to fitness), Ahmer Ashfaq, Ali Usman, Arafat Minhas, Bismillah Khan (wicket-keeper, Guest Player), Hasan Hafeez, Imran Butt (Guest Player), Imran Rafiq, Kashif Ali (Guest Player), Mohammad Ismail (U21), Mohammad Shan (U21), Muhammad Shahzad and Waqar Hussain

National Duty: Faisal Akram and Imam-ul-Haq

Reserves: Abdul Rehman Muzammil, Ghulam Haider, Huzaif Ayub, Jamshaid Bhatti, Saim Ayyaz, Tahir Hussain, Uzair Mumtaz and Zeeshan Ashraf

Peshawar

Abbas Ali, Adil Amin, Azam Khan, Israrullah, Khalid Shah, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Abuzar, Mohammad Irfan (U21), Muhammad Amir Khan, Mohammad Haris, (wicket-keeper), Nabi Gul, Najab Khan (U21), Niaz Khan, Sahibzada Farhan, Sufyan Moqim (Guest Player) and Waqar Ahmed

National Duty: Mohammad Rizwan and Sajid Khan

Note: Rizwan and Sajid will be the captain and vice-captain, respectively for first first round.

Reserves: Afkar Durrani (U21), Fazal Haq, Mohammad Farhan, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Mohammad Mohsin Khan, Mohammad Zulkifal, Taj Wali and Zubair Khan

Sialkot

Amad Butt (captain), Aashar Mehmood, Afzaal Manzoor (U21, wicket-keeper), Ahmed Hasan (U21), Ayaz Tasawar, Azan Awais, Mehran Mumtaz (Guest Player), Mohammad Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Husnain Khan, Mohammad Waleed, Mohsin Riaz and Shoaib Akhtar

National Duty: Abdullah Shafique and Hasan Ali

Reserves: Ali Afzal (U21), Ali Raza (U21, subject to fitness), Athar Mehmood, Awais Ali (U21), Hamza Nazar, Khawaja Arham, Mirza Tahir Baig, Shahzaib Bhatti and Usama Mir (to join from second round)

First round fixtures:

6-9 October

Abbottabad v Bahawalpur at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium

Lahore Whites v Islamabad at Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

Peshawar v Sialkot at Imran Khan Stadium, Peshawar (To be live-streamed on PCB YouTube Channel)

FATA v Multan at Diamond Cricket Ground, Islamabad (To be live-streamed on PCB YouTube Channel)

Faisalabad v Karachi Blues at Marghzar Cricket Ground, Islamabad