Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan and Usman Tariq will be among 63 Pakistan stars that will go under the hammer in the first-ever The Hundred Auction on March 11. The list includes several members of Pakistan's current T20 World Cup 2026 squad. However, veterans Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan have opted out with likely national team commitments for the West Indies series.
The revelation comes amid several reports of a 'shadow ban' on Pakistan players during the auction. The upcoming Hundred season and auction are the first since ECB brought in foreign investment with IPL-team owners involved in 4 of the 8 franchises.
IPL teams have not had any Pakistan players since the 2009. Only a few have played for their franchises overseas, including SA20, ILT20 and CPL. BCCI recently asked KKR to release Mustafizur Rahman due to escalating tensions with the country.
Only nine Pakistani players have played in 5 seasons of The Hundred, even before the Indian owners were involved. Pakistan players are often ignored due to NOC troubles and high-profile withdrawals. However recently, Shaheen Afridi, Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan committed to the Big Bash League over a series against Sri Lanka. Afridi's season was curtailed by injury, while Rizwan and Babar endured horror runs.
Four IPL franchises are now involved in The Hundred as part-owners or full owners: Mumbai Indians (MI London), Lucknow Super Giants (Manchester Super Giants), Sunrisers Hyderabad (Sunrisers Leeds), and Delhi Capitals (Southern Brave).
Teams co-owned by Delhi Capitals and Southern Brave’s GMR Group have previously signed Pakistani players, including Imad Wasim, Zaman Khan, and Shan Masood, while the other three franchises have never signed Pakistan nationals.
High-profile England players such as Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Joe Root (men’s), and Tammy Beaumont, Dani Gibson, Linsey Smith (women’s) are on the longlist, though Ben Stokes is absent due to workload management.
Overseas stars Sophie Devine, Beth Mooney, Deepti Sharma, Trent Boult, Aiden Markram, and Sunil Narine are also in contention, while most of Australia’s men’s Test squad are unavailable due to their home series against Bangladesh in August.
The Hundred auctions will start with a marquee set of “hero” players nominated by the eight franchises, all of which have made up to four pre-auction signings.
Salary caps for 2026 have risen to £2.05 million (men’s) and £880,000 (women’s), and teams may field four overseas players per match, up from three in previous seasons.
