The Hundred Draft: Rashid Khan is first pick as domestic stars get big paydays but Chris Gayle misses out

Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_20 October 2019

Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan had the honour of being the first player selected in the inaugural Hundred Draft, as he was taken with the opening pick by the Trent Rockets.

However, T20 superstars Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga and Kagiso Rabada will all be missing from next summer’s competition after they went undrafted in the opening round of selections.

Khan and West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell has both been heavily touted as top picks, with the latter going second to the Southern Brave, before Australian one-day captain Aaron Finch was taken by the Northern Superchargers.

The Aussie trio of Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and David Warner were all taken in the opening round on the maximum salary of £125,000 - the first pair to Welsh Fire and Warner to Southern Brave - but the other three players with reserve prices in the highest bracket, Gayle, Malinga and Rabada, went unselected in the opening round.

England’s red-ball contracted players had already been assigned to teams, along with two ‘local icon’ players, but the maximum allocation of three overseas players per side saw several franchises move to secure the best unsigned domestic talent early.

England's Jos Buttler was picked by Manchester Originals  Photo: Getty Images for ECB
Getty Images for ECB

Eyebrows were raised when the Birmingham Phoenix took Lancashire all-rounder Liam Livingstone with their first pick, but he was soon followed by Dane Vilas, Lewis Gregory, Liam Dawson, Sam Billings and Phil Salt before the end of the second round.

Manchester Originals in particular favoured that strategy, with South African spinner Imran Tahir, the leading wicket-taker in the IPL last season, their only overseas selection in their first three rounds.

That in turn saw several more of the world’s top players drop out of the draft as their reserve prices expired. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, South African wicketkeeper Quinton De Kock and West Indies IPL star Kieron Pollard were among those to miss out in the £100,000 bracket, while Pakistan’s Babar Azam, who excelled in the T20 Blast for Somerset this year went undrafted at £75,000.

First round in full:

  1. Trent Rockets – Rashid Khan
  2. Southern Brave – Andre Russell
  3. Northern Superchargers – Aaron Finch
  4. Welsh Fire – Mitchell Starc
  5. Oval Invincibles – Sunil Narine
  6. Manchester Originals – Imran Tahir
  7. London Spirit – Glenn Maxwell
  8. Birmingham Phoenix – Liam Livingstone
  9. Birmingham Phoenix – Moeen Ali (pre-picked local icon)
  10. London Spirit – Eoin Morgan (pre-picked local icon)
  11. Manchester Originals – Dane Vilas
  12. Oval Invincibles – Jason Roy (pre-picked local icon)
  13. Welsh Fire – Steve Smith
  14. Northern Superchargers – Mujeeb Ur Rahman
  15. Southern Brave – David Warner
  16. Trent Rockets – D’Arcy Short

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