Ihsanullah, the talented Pakistani pacer, has announced retirement and called for boycott of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) after he went unpicked in the recent PSL 2025 draft. He burst onto the scene with 22 wickets in PSL 8 for Multan Sultans and soon made his Pakistan debut as well.
In March 2023, he made his debut against Afghanistan and then played another T20I against New Zealand. He also made his ODI debut in the same series; however, his performance was cut short owing to an elbow injury.
His recuperation was far from straightforward, and it became the primary cause for Pakistan's chief medical officer to retire when an independent inquiry highlighted the disastrous handling of his injury.
Ihsanullah returned to competitive cricket in the Champions T20 Cup, taking two wickets in four matches.
After going unsold in the PSL 10 draft, Ihsanullah told Public News that his decision to boycott and retire from PSL was not an emotional outburst but a well-thought-out move.
“I just don’t want to play franchise cricket anymore. It’s over after today. I completely boycott it and retire from the PSL. I won’t be seen in the PSL again. I want to represent Pakistan by performing in domestic cricket, not by playing in the PSL,” he announced.
When asked about his relationship with Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen, Ihsanullah said that the franchise had never contacted him, adding to his sense of neglect.
"No one has contacted me; you know this world is selfish. When someone else finds another person, they go with them. He [Ali Tareen] used to support my performance and talent. If you perform, these franchises will come after you.
My goal is to make them chase after me, and I need to perform like that. I’ll bowl at a pace of 150-160, and those who have said I’m a 130-135 bowler, in one and a half months, I’ll show them that I wasn’t the same bowler who played in PSL 8 and got injured. I’ll look much better than that,” he added.
Ihsanullah's statements were in response to Ali Tareen's announcement, in which the Multan Sultans’ owner stated that the pacer would be unable to reach 150 mph due to an elbow injury sustained during a 2023 series against New Zealand.
“It is a very sad development, but we got Ihsanullah consulted with a top surgeon, who gave us some really bad news, saying that ‘guys, I can do the surgery, but no matter what I do, there is so much scarring from his previously botched surgery that his arm will never become perfectly straight, and he will never be able to bowl in the same way because he does not have a straight arm.’
So, it is so unfortunate that one person ruined a player’s career to hide his mistake. That’s why even now, he was bowling in domestic cricket at 130-135, which is a high pace, but he was our 155 [kph] bowler,” Ali Tareen said.
He picked 6 wickets in 4 T20I for Pakistan with a best of 3/29 and went wicketless in the only ODI he played.
