Gladiators had announced Sarfaraz as their captain on PSL draft day. It is customary for franchises to announce their captain for the purposes of the draft, though changes can be made after that.

Gladiators owner Nadeem Omar told the Relukattay podcast earlier this week that he remained "double-minded" over whether to replace Sarfaraz as captain. There is no desire to cast out the only captain the franchise has ever known, with Omar criticising the PCB for doing just that when Sarfaraz was sacked as Pakistan skipper. He said it "would be nicer" if Sarfaraz handed Gladiators captaincy away on his own, and that Sarfaraz had even agreed to do so if required.

"It is the elephant in the room," Omar said. "Wherever I go, people ask me this. But our franchise is a bit different from the others in the sense that we have a very intimate relationship with these players. I understand cricketers have a shelf life, but I think over Pakistan history, we tend to dump players unceremoniously.

"Sarfaraz has been off the boil over the last couple of years. There are a lot of reasons for that - the way he was unceremoniously ousted by the PCB didn't help, especially when he had a few more years. We won't dump him unceremoniously. We haven't decided yet, but we'll give him full honours. Sarfaraz told me he would be happy to step aside if Quetta wants to make a change. We have a call with Shane Watson in a couple of days, and then we'll decide."

Sarfaraz, 36, was appointed Gladiators captain when the league was inaugurated in 2016, and led his side to the final. Weeks later, he was appointed Pakistan's white-ball captain, and led the national side to the 2017 Champions Trophy title. He led Gladiators to the PSL title in 2019, but fading form saw him sacked as Pakistan captain from all three formats within a year, and he was dropped from the national side.

But Gladiators' form has fallen away dramatically since. They have missed qualifying for the playoffs the last four years, and finished bottom or second from bottom each time.

Sarfaraz is currently in Australia with Pakistan's Test side, and played the opening Test in Perth, which Australia won by 360 runs.