Ihsanullah’s revelation comes just a day after the PSL 2025 draft in Lahore where he found no takers. Going into the draft, his fitness struggles have been well-documented with a botched elbow surgery as well as inadequate medical treatment delaying his return to the field.

Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen also claimed that the player may not be able to bowl the same way again. “It's very sad. It's really, really sad but we got Ihsanullah consulted with a top surgeon - he is a "world expert" - who gave us big news, saying that ‘I can do the surgery but no matter what I do, there is so much scarring from his previously botched surgery, thanks to the PCB, that his arm will never become perfectly straight,'" he said on The Relukuttay Show just a week before the draft.

Although the player responded by pledging to bowl at speeds of 150 kmph within a month, neither his former side Multan Sultans nor Peshawar Zalmi, who he was on trials with recently, acquired him in the PSL 2025 draft.

Ihsanullah: 'I am boycotting the PSL'

Speaking on Public News after the PSL 2025 draft, Ihsanullah said, “Main boycott karta hoon, retirement leta hoon PSL se [I’m boycotting the PSL and retiring from it]. Main zindagi mein kisi ko bhi nazar nahi aaunga PSL mein [I’ll never be seen playing in the PSL again].”

The bowler clarified that his decision wasn’t emotionally motivated and he also added that none of the owners including Ali Tareen got in touch with him before the draft.

Ihsanullah burst on to the scene with his superlative performances with Multan Sultans in PSL 2023. Finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker that season with 22 dismissals, he consistently clocked 150 kmph and finished as the Player of the Series.

As a result, Ihsanullah was fast-tracked into the Pakistan cricket team and he made his T20I debut against Afghanistan in March 2023. However, an elbow injury sustained on his ODI debut against New Zealand proved to be a major setback.

It was claimed that he wasn’t appropriately treated and never received a formal rehabilitation process. Criticism over the mishandling of his injury led to the resignation of PCB’s chief medical officer Dr Sohail Saleem. Not only did it cost him 21 months of his career, but it also affected his pace as Ihsanullah has struggled to reach the speeds that he used to operate at before the injury.

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