The Hundred | Kagiso Rabada, Lasith Malinga, Chris Gayle find no takers in mega draft

The Hundred | Kagiso Rabada, Lasith Malinga, Chris Gayle find no takers in mega draft

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A few eyebrows were raised as Kagiso Rabada, Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga found no takers in the Hundred draft. With only three overseas slots for the eight teams, the likes of Rashid Khan, D'Arcy Short, Andre Russell, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell etc. were preferred over the veterans.

96 players were selected from the Hundred draft, while 474 players went unsold. Rashid Khan turned out to be the first pick in the draft while Luke Wright was the last from the draft to get picked as both of them were picked by Trent Rockets. Southern Brave came out all guns blazing in the draft as they signed Andre Russell and David Warner as their top picks. Seven salary brackets made the draft as a series of seven rounds with two picks each.

There were two rounds in which the first round was the selection of local picks and three slots for each team were available for their overseas pick in the first round. London Spirit and Oval invincibles bagged big fishes Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy respectively as their local picks and then went for Glenn Maxwell and Sunil Narine respectively as their overseas picks. 

London Spirit coach Shane Warne elaborated on the kind of on-the-spot thinking one has to make due to the dynamic nature of the draft. He said that he had to act quickly as tactics don't always work as things may pan out to be different than what was usually expected. 

"I'm used to playing a tactical game, but that was something else! Our position in the rounds meant that I had to think on my feet, and at times re-evaluate who I was going to pick and when," he told CricBuzz.

"I'm thrilled to have Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Nabi and Mark Wood join Eoin and Rory in the team and can't wait to see them step up to the crease for London Spirit in the first season of The Hundred," he further added.

Manchester Originals chose to back on the experience of Imran Tahir and Dane Vilas, while Welsh Fire added an Aussie flavour to their squad by picking Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. Surprisingly, Babar Azam was excluded. Shadab Khan added bowling variety to the lineup of Southern Brave with the likes of Andre Rusell, Warner, Tymal Mills etc already bolstering the batting and bowling attack.

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