Now, with the benefit of seeing the opening rounds of the 2020 tournament play out, here’s a look at which teams at this year’s tournament would have benefitted from having a Pakistani in their ranks.

Before we start, it’s worth remembering just how hard it is to make an IPL XI as an overseas player. In any given round, there are only 32 overseas spots available and how they are filled is often down to how well local players fill various roles. T20 stars Imran Tahir, Sandeep Lamichhane and Mujeeb Ur Rahman are yet to play a game in the tournament, illustrating just how hard it can be for overseas players to nail down first-team spots.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Shaheen Afridi

With 12 wickets in his last three T20 appearances, Shaheen Afridi is on fire at the moment. One of three Pakistani left-arm quicks on this list, it’s a style of bowling that’s sought after but is also in scarce supply in the IPL, both in terms of overseas and local talent. It’s early days in the 2020 IPL, but RCB have so far been let down by their overseas quicks. Dale Steyn, now 37, and Sri Lanka’s left-arm seamer Isuru Udana have both gone at over 11 runs per over so far in the competition. Shaheen would provide a marked upgrade on both.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Mohammad Amir

KKR spent big money on Pat Cummins at last year’s auction to secure the services of the number one ranked bowler in Test cricket. If Amir was available at the auction, you can’t help but feel that he’d have been a more prudent pick. Lethal in the Powerplay and effective at the death, there are few quicks in the world you’d want more in T20 cricket than Amir.

Mumbai Indians: Naseem Shah

Mumbai have picked overseas quicks James Pattinson and Trent Boult in all four of their games in the tournament so far. With the exception of Pattinson’s display against RCB – he finished with figures of 0-51 – both have performed reasonably so far, taking 11 wickets between them. Pattinson, despite his age, is actually fairly inexperienced in the format; now 30, he’d played just 39 T20 professional T20 games going into the tournament. A regular starting berth may have been a step too high for Naseem at this stage of his career, but given the way he’s taken the cricketing world by storm and the express pace he has at his disposal, he would have been an exciting, if slightly raw, alternative to Pattinson for Mumbai.

Kings XI Punjab: Wahab Riaz

An expert death bowler, Wahab may have been a slight upgrade on Sheldon Cottrell, who Kings XI have played in their first four fixtures. Handier than most realise with the bat, Wahab could also have slotted in the Punjab XI alongside Cottrell at the expense of Jimmy Neesham, who has one wicket and seven runs from his first three appearances in the competition.

Rajasthan Royals: Shadab Khan

Rajasthan lack a world-class domestic option in the spin department and while Shadab might not quite be in that bracket just yet, if you add his all-action fielding and explosive middle-order hitting to the mix, you have a superb T20 cricketer. The challenge Shadab would have would be displacing one of the overseas Royals players in the XI, especially when Ben Stokes returns to the mix.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Haider Ali

Top-order overseas spots are hard to come by in the IPL but Haider Ali has already proved in his short career that he’s a special talent. Aaron Finch averages less than 20 at a strike-rate of under 130 since the start of 2018 in IPL cricket, numbers that struggle to justify the occupation of an overseas slot in the XI. Haider would at the very least push Finch for a spot at the top of the RCB order.

Chennai Super Kings: Babar Azam

A class act and one of the most consistent run-scorers in T20 cricket, the only thing to let Babar down in the format is his scoring rate. Recently, Babar hit a 17-ball 10 for Somerset in a chase of over 200 against Gloucestershire in the T20 Blast, a knock that arguably cost his side the game – it’s innings like that that hold the Pakistani superstar from being a truly elite T20 batsman. But CSK have deployed Faf du Plessis in that top-order anchor role in the past and Babar almost certainly possesses a higher ceiling.