RAWALPINDI – The Pakistan Super League (PSL) tenth edition will begin on Friday night with the match between defending champions Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars after the opening ceremony at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The 34-match tournament comprises of three-double headers scheduled on 12 April, 1 and 10 May, while the remaining fixtures will be single headers taking place across Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. The three afternoon games will begin at 4pm PKT. The six teams will also be locking horns to take away the USD 500,000 prize money set for the winners, while the runners-up team will be awarded USD 200,000. The PSL X draft, which took place on 13 January, gave the six franchises an opportunity to refurbish their squads ahead of the historic edition. The newly renovated Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore is set to play host to 13 PSL X matches including Qualifier, Eliminator and the 18 May final. The Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium will host 11 matches, while Multan Cricket Stadium and National Bank Stadium will witness five matches each this season. Babar Azam, the leading run-scorer in the PSL with 3,504 runs to his name, will be leading the PSL 2017 winners Peshawar Zalmi. Australia’s David Warner becomes the fourth overseas player to lead the 2020 champions Karachi Kings after Ravi Bopara, Kumar Sangakkara and Eoin Morgan. Mohammad Rizwan, who led Multan Sultans to glory in the 2021 edition in Abu Dhabi, will continue to reign as Sultans’ skipper having done so 48 times in the previous four PSL editions. Quetta’s Saud Shakeel will take the leadership duties of the Gladiators from Rilee Rossouw. Shadab Khan, who has led Islamabad United in 55 PSL matches so far, has been entrusted leadership duties for PSL X as well, while Shaheen Shah Afridi, the only captain to have won consecutive titles will be in charge of the Lahore Qalandars. In PSL 2024, Islamabad United emerged winners bagging the title for third time, while Multan Sultans ended up as runners-up for the third consecutive time.