The Hundred 2024 Draft springs up surprises as the likes of Babar Azam, David Warner, Jason Roy and Mark Wood go unsold
The Hundred 2024 Draft witnessed the 2024 Pakistan Super League's (PSL) leading runscorer Babar Azam as well as veteran batter David Warner finding no suitors among other high-profile players on Thursday, March 21.
Along with Babar, who was a late addition to the draft, his Pakistan teammate Mohammad Rizwan also remained unsold. The surprises on the international front continued as T20 specialist Tim David was snubbed and so were Sunil Narine and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman.
The biggest winners of the draft were arguably the West Indies players, with their dominance on the show with the first-ever pick of the event. The Northern Superchargers went for Nicholas Pooran straightaway, while his international teammates like Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, and Kieron Pollard were all roped in by franchises in the first round for a sum of £125,000.
However, the local players did not meet the same fate as their Windies counterparts, with the likes of Jason Roy and Mark Wood being overlooked by the teams. Jason Roy had a horrid season for the Oval Invincibles in the 2023 Hundred season and has not been in the scheme of things for the national side.
Wood, on the other hand, has had his fair share of injury concerns, and recently pulled out of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Other English stars like Ollie Pope and Dawid Malan found new franchises, making the switch to London after being roped in by the London Spirit and the Oval Invincibles, respectively.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues find no suitors in The Hundred 2024 women's draft
The Indian duo of Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, who had solid campaigns with the bat in the middle order for their respective franchises in the recently concluded Women's Premier League (WPL), attracted no interest in The Hundred 2024 women's draft.
On the other hand, WPL-winning skipper Smriti Mandhana will return to the Southern Brave, the franchise with which she won the title in the 2023 edition.
England's Amy Jones was the first pick of the women's draft after being picked by the Birmingham Phoenix for a sum of £50,000. Other prominent picks in the women's draft came in the form of Australian internationals Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, and Jess Jonassen, who all found teams in the first round itself.
The 2024 edition of The Hundred is scheduled to begin on July 23 with a double-header between the Oval Invincibles and the Birmingham Phoenix. The finals of both the men's and the women's editions will be held on August 18 at Lord's.