Islamabad United

Islamabad United(IU) is franchise team owned by Leonine Global Investments through its sports entity Leonine Global Sports, owned by Amna Naqvi and Ali Naqvi.

The team was formed in 2015 and they compete in Pakistan Super League(PSL). They play their home games in Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium which have capacity of 25000 peoples.

Background

Islamabad United was formed in 2015 to compete in PSL. The team is based in capital of pakistan,Islamabad. They are the inaugural champions of Pakistan Super League. The team won the first PSL title, defeating Quetta Gladiators in the final. Shoaib Naveed is the Chief Operating Officer of the franchise while Rehan Ul Haq is its General Manager. The franchise won their second title in the third season of the PSL, by defeating Peshawar Zalmi in the final by 3 wickets.

Players

In 2016 team was led by Misbah UL Haq and coach Dean Jones. The team line up and performance was so good that they won the championship. In the team Sharjeel Khan became the batsman with highest run and Andre russell became the bowler with more wickets. Sharjeel khan Asif ali, Hussain Talat, Khalid latif were batsman in the team in 2016 and australian all rounder Shane Watson , West Indies Dwayne Smith ,Imran Khalid were all rounders in team. The command of bowling was handled by Sajeel Ahmed , Mohamed Sami and other players.

Coming to 2017, they reached up to eliminators in PSL with same coach and captain. This time some of new players have joined the team. Radafulla Mohamed, Ben Duckett, Shadab khan, Nicholas pooran, Steven finns were there as new faces.

In 2018 they again became the champions. In some games of IU few players had hold the name of captain but Misbah Haq was all time captain for the team. His captainship continued in this year too.

In 2019 too they are in search of title. In current team some new players have replaced old ones. The current squad is

MISBAH-UL-HAQ , ALEX HALES ,SAM BILLINGS ,MOHAMMAD HASAN , CHADWICK WALTON ,ROHAIL NAZIR, LUKE RONCHI, AMAD BUTT, JP DUMINY, HUSSAIN TALAT, SAMIT PATEL, ANDRE RUSSELL, SHADAB KHAN, FAHEEM ASHRAF, SAMUEL BADREE, STEVEN FINN, MOHAMMAD SAMI, RUMMAN RAEES, ZAFAR GOHAR.

Prominent Achievements

The Islamabad United, known for their fearless form of cricket, had their most successful season in 2015 and 2018, when the team won league titles. In the games respectively Sharjeel Khan ,Andre Russell and Luke Ronchi and Fahim Ashraf became the most run hitting and wicket taking players.

Not only the league titles but they have won the heart of many cricket fans in entire globe. Many overseas players have shown their gaming via this team.

Club Trajectory

After a poor start to the 2016 Pakistan Super League tournament Islamabad United finished third in the round robin group stage, qualifying for the knockout stage of the tournament. The team won four matches out of eight, finishing with eight points from their group games.

In 2017 IU came up with new players and new skills. But it was not favor for winning title. Although they had good start in league they settled in eliminations. This year too they faced Karachi in the eliminator. In what proved to be a thrilling game, Karachi, batting first, scored a measly 126 getting all out in the process. Islamabad was set to win and qualify for the second play off. However, that was not the case as the second innings proved. The Karachi bowlers outshone the Islamabad batsmen with Mohammad Amir, Imad Wasim and Usama Mir each picking up three wickets. Islamabad were all out for a mere 82 runs, their lowest in the tournament and the second-lowest in the tournament's history.

The team have won two leagues of PSL. Although have began with poor starting in 2018 league they ended with title. They lost to Peshawar Zalmi in their first game chasing target of 176 runs. But the fame of revenge was still alive in their hearts. In final they again faced Peshawar Zalmi and chased the target of 149 runs and achieved the target and lift up the cup for second time.