Former legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram has compared the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL), questioning the former for not producing top-quality batters while the latter does so.
Speaking to YouTuber Furqan Bhatti, Akram reckoned that over the years, the PSL has produced some good bowlers while the tournament struggled to create good enough batting talent, citing the example of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who emerged from the cash-rich league, IPL.
“It has been 10 years since the PSL started, but has a single batter been produced by the PSL? Yes we have produced a few bowlers but tell me have we produced any noteworthy batting talent? I think when we produce a batting talent like the 15-year old (Sooryavanshi) then we will see improvements coming through,” Wasim Akram said.
The recent PSL 2026 campaign unearthed a phenomenal crop of young bowling talents like Sufiyan Muqeem, Ali Raza and Hunain Shah. However, the tournament failed to create an impact in developing enough batting talent.
On the other hand, IPL witnessed batting talents like Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre, Mukul Choudhary, Priyansh Arya, and Kartik Sharma. Sooryavanshi shattered multiple Indian Premier League records during a historic 2026 campaign.
The 15-year-old batter took only 440 balls to reach his 1000-run milestone in the IPL, becoming the fastest to reach the landmark. He also smashed 72 sixes in the campaign, the most by any batter in an IPL season. He also set a new benchmark of becoming the first batter to score over 500 runs in the powerplay overs during a single season.
Further, the former Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram highlighted the ned to bring back a strong club-cricket system in his country. Notably, his comments came after Pakistan’s 0-3 Test series defeat to England.
“Club cricket needs to be revived if we want improvement in red-ball cricket. The PCB should spend 100 million rupees each in Karachi and Lahore, as talent comes from club cricket,” he concluded.
