The Hundred Cricket: England Cricket Board have announced cricket’s newest format slated to begin in July 2020.
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England Cricket Board have announced extensive details of the much-discussed 100-ball format titled ‘The Hundred’.
In Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire, eight teams will be seen contesting against each other in the first season slated to be played in July next year.
Each franchise has picked five English players each as of now. England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan will represent London Spirits in the tournament. Test opening batsman Rory Burns has also been picked by Spirits.
Test captain Joe Root will play for Trent Rockets and will be accompanied by opening batsman Alex Hales and pacer Harry Gurney.
Star all-rounder Ben Stokes, leg-spinner Adil Rashid and all-rounder David Willey will play for Northern Superchargers in the first season of the The Hundred. While wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler will play for Manchester Originals, another wicket-keeper in Jonny Bairstow will represent Welsh Fire.
Opening batsman Jason Roy and currant brothers in Tom and Sam have been picked by Oval Invincibles. Fast bowler duo of Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan will play for Southern Brave.
The Hundred Cricket
Among the overseas players, 165 players have been named in the main draft for the tournament. It is worth mentioning that a franchise is permitted to include three players in both their squad and the team. The main draft of the players will be carried out on October 20.
The Hundred comprises of some of the most sought-after names in T20 cricket namely Chris Gayle, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Babar Azam, Lasith Malinga, Rashid Khan, Glenn Maxwell, Shakib Al Hasan and Sandeep Lamichhane.
Veteran India spinner Harbhajan Singh remains the only Indian player who has expressed interest in playing the tournament. Given BCCI’s stance on Indian players playing in overseas leagues, the 39-year old cricketer will have to announce retirement from international cricket to play in England.
Harbhajan had last played for India during the Asia Cup in 2016. Since the last season of domestic cricket in India, Harbhajan only plays the Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings. In 11 matches in IPL 2019, Harbhajan dismissed 16 batmen at an average of 19.50, an economy rate of 7.09 and a strike rate of 16.50.
Most recently, all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and pacer Manpreet Singh Gony played in the Global T20 League 2019 after announcing retirements from international cricket.
