Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, Babar Azam safely moved after blast in Quetta during PSL 2023 exhibition match

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and current skipper Babar Azam were moved safely to the dressing room following a terror attack in Quetta. Afridi and Babar played an exhibition match for the Peshawar Zalmi against Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at the Nawab Akbar Bugti Stadium in Quetta on Sunday, February 5. The blast occurred a few miles near the stadium where the match took place. However, the stadium was fully packed.

According to reports, five people were left injured after an explosion at the Police Lines in Peshawar. Last week, almost 80 people were killed and many were injured in a suicide attack in the police lines area. A senior police officer confirmed that the rescue work has been completed and the people who are injured have been taken to the hospital. “As soon as the explosion happened, as a precautionary measure, the match was stopped and players taken to the dressing room for a while. Later, after the green signal, the match resumed,” the police official was quoted as saying by India Today.

Later on Sunday, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the responsibility for the terror attack in Quetta through a statement.  

PSL 2023 set to begin on February 13

The upcoming season of the PSL will begin on Monday, February 13. Multan Sultans will take on defending champions Lahore Qalandars in the opening match at the Multan Cricket Stadium. The Lahore Qalandars defeated Multan Sultans captained by Mohammad Rizwan in the summit clash of the previous edition of the PSL. The matches will be taken place mostly in Karachi, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi. 

Both Afridi and Babar represented Peshawar Zalmi in the exhibition match. Babar was earlier named as the captain of Zalmi, replacing Wahab Riaz. The exhibition match was conducted at Quetta after pressure from the Baloch fans. They claimed that Quetta should also get PSL status since no sports activities has been happening there for the past few years due to security reasons.