Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2026-27 starts 3 November: Babar Azam's Lahore Whites face FATA

The 69th Quaid-e-Azam Trophy begins on Tuesday 3 November 2026, with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirming squads for both the eight-team Gold tier and the 12-team Silver tier. The opening Gold round includes Pakistan Test captain Babar Azam turning out for Lahore Whites against Shaheen Shah Afridi's FATA at the Diamond Cricket Ground in Islamabad, ARY News reported.

Gold tier: dates and teams

• Dates: 3 November to 12 December, with the final between the top two teams on 15 to 19 December.
• Teams: defending champions Karachi Blues, Faisalabad, FATA, Lahore Whites, Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan and Sialkot Blues.
• Matches: 29 first-class games across Islamabad, Abbottabad and Rawalpindi.
• Streaming: all four matches in each Gold round are live-streamed on tapmad and Tamasha.

Captains to watch

Mohammad Rizwan captains Peshawar Blues, Saud Shakeel leads Karachi Blues, Abdullah Shafique captains Sialkot Blues, Shaheen Afridi leads FATA and Babar Azam plays for Lahore Whites. Karachi Blues list Shan Masood among their reserves, recovering from injury.

Each side has 15 travelling players and may also pick from reserves or a national-duty pool, so players on international duty can slot in when they are free.

Silver tier

Twelve teams are split into two groups of six and the competition acts as the qualifying route into next season's Gold tier.

• Group A: Lahore Blues, Rawalpindi, Larkana, Quetta, Bahawalpur and Peshawar Whites, playing at three Karachi venues (KCCA Stadium, SBP and UBL Sports Complexes).
• Group B: Karachi Whites, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Dera Murad Jamali, Abbottabad and Sialkot Whites, at Multan Cricket Stadium, Sports Complex Rahim Yar Khan and Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur.
• Group matches run 3 to 30 November, and the five-day final is on 3 to 7 December. Four of the six matches each round are live-streamed. The tier has 31 matches.

Kick-off times in PKT are set by each match's venue and will be on the PCB fixture list. For other fixtures this season, see our living pages for Pakistan cricket and the match centre.

Sources: ARY News and ProPakistani, 2 November 2026, citing the PCB announcement.