Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz has praised the Indian Premier League and called it more superior to his country’s T20 tournament, Pakistan super league.
The 35-year-old, who has been the part of the PSL ever since its inaugural season, pointed out the differences between the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In a recent interview with the Cricket Pakistan, the left-arm seamer talked about the presence of the top international players in the IPL and credited that to be one of the major reasons why it stands out.
Indian Premier League (IPL), the richest T20 league in the world attracts the most elite players from all the countries. Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Brett Lee, Kevin Pietersen, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and many others have been part of IPL at some point of time in their careers, the current batch of IPL players also consists of the best from the world.
Riaz also pointed out that the way IPL drafts players are also different. In IPL, player auctions are held ahead of the season, which lets the player get the maximum salary, based on his demand. On the other hand, PSL uses a system of the draft, which has players getting categorized under a salary bracket, with each category having a specific salary that runs across the teams.
“IPL is a league where all the top international players come and play. You can’t compare IPL with PSL, I believe IPL is at a different level. Their commitments, the way they run things, communicate things, the way they draft the players, that is totally different. I don’t think any league can compete with the IPL, but if there is any league that stands behind it, it has to be the PSL. The League in Pakistan has proved it,” Riaz said during the interview with Cricket Pakistan’s YouTube Channel.
However, Riaz further said that the bowling standards in the PSL are the best in any league in the world. He also said that when it comes to bowling units, then PSL might even be better than IPL.
“The bowling standards that you get in PSL, you won’t find that anywhere in the world, even in the IPL. If you notice, there aren’t too many high-scoring matches in the PSL and that is because of the bowling attack. Cricket wise, if you ask, the main difference between the IPL & PSL is every team in PSL has great bowling attacks.” added the left-arm fast-bowler.
