Rashid Khan was the first pick in the maiden ‘The Hundred‘ draft while Luke Wright was the last pick, with both players going to Trent Rockets who started and ended the event on Sunday (October 20). With only three overseas slots each available for the eight teams, several big-name players had no takers, including the likes of Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, and Kagiso Rabada.
There were seven salary brackets – GBP 125,000, 100,000, 75,000, 60,000, 50,000, 40,000 and 30,000 – that made for the seven rounds of two picks each. With all the teams having signed up two local players beforehand, along with one England centrally contracted player apiece, they had to skip that particular price bracket in the draft for the respective selections made before the draft.
D’Arcy Short was Trent Rockets’ other pick in the first round while Southern Brave bagged Andre Russell and David Warner as their first picks. London Spirit and Oval Invincibles had already selected Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy as their local picks under the GBP 125,000 bracket and they opted for Glenn Maxwell and Sunil Narine respectively as their second first-round picks.
Manchester Originals opted for Imran Tahir and Dane Vilas in the first round while Welsh Fire chose the Australian duo of Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Aaron Finch found takers in Northern Superchargers during the first round. Birmingham Phoenix, meanwhile, chose Liam Livingstone as their only first-round choice in the draft, having roped in Moeen Ali beforehand.
Lewis Gregory, Liam Dawson, Sam Billings, Phil Salt, Ravi Bopara, and Tom Abell were the England players picked in the GBP 100,000 bracket while Kane Williamson, Mohammad Nabi, Sandeep Lamichhane, Mohammad Amir and Chris Lynn were the overseas selections in the second round. On the other hand, big names like Shakib Al Hasan, Trent Boult, Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Bravo missed out.
Babar Azam was the major exclusion during the third round along with several other overseas names while Shadab Khan made it to the Southern Bravo team, who stacked their bowling department with plenty of pace options and batting firepower, with Russell, Warner, Archer, and Tymal Mills all part of the lineup. Liam Plunkett and Ryan ten Doeschate, who had a reserve price of GBP 50,000, were both picked by Welsh Fire.
A total of 96 players were selected in the draft while as many as 474 went unsold.
