Hyderabad sign Marnus Labuschagne for PSL 11

Marnus Labuschagne has been signed by Hyderabad, one of the two new PSL franchises, ahead of the player auction on February 11. Marnus, who has only played the Big Bash League (BBL) and Vitality Blast among franchise leagues, will make his PSL debut for the new team.

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Marnus Labuschagne Allrounder

Marnus Labuschagne is an Australian right-handed batting all-rounder, known for his Test success, playing for the Brisbane Heat in the BBL, Queensland domestically, and Glamorgan in county cricket; he debuted in 2018 for Australia, became the first concussion substitute in Tests (2019), was the leading 2019 Test run-scorer, and won the 2023 WTC & ODI World Cups, earning the 2020 ICC Emerging Cricketer award.

Labuschagne joins Smith in PSL

He is the second Australian player, after Steve Smith, to be signed directly by a PSL franchise for the upcoming season. The PCB had earlier allowed each team to rope in one player this way per team.

"Yeah… this just happened. Calm under pressure. Built for big moments. Marnus Labuschagne locked in as our direct signing for PSL 11,” read the post from the franchise’s official social media handle.

Marnus comes off a dismal BBL season where he scored 23 runs with a strike rate of 95 in three games for Brisbane Heat. That he has only ever played one T20I game, where he scored 2 off 4 balls, for Australia underlines his reputation as largely a longer-format player.

How much did Labuschagne cost Hyderabad?

Hyderabad did not reveal the price for this signing. The PCB, however, had allowed teams to stretch their PKR 450 million purse to PKR 505 million to accommodate the direct signings. 

So far, all teams, barring Multan Sultans and Quetta Gladiators, have announced their direct signings. While Multan might be awaiting their new management after the team auction on February 9 to do the honours, Quetta can be expected to announce theirs before the player auction.

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