Men’s BBL Draft sees Pakistan stars in high demand as Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf lead the way with their selections.
At the men’s BBL draft, Pakistan’s top picks were Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, and Haris Rauf. Afridi was chosen first overall on Thursday, while seven Pakistani players were selected overall.
After Afridi was nominated for the BBL draft for the first time and was available for the entire season, almost every club in the draft would have selected him with their first pick. The left-arm fast, who will join Spencer Johnson, Michael Neser, and Xavier Bartlett in the all-star pace assault, was immediately taken by the Brisbane Heat.
After the Adelaide Strikers attempted to steal Rauf with choice No. 2, the Melbourne Stars had to utilise their retention pick to keep him.
Even though the Melbourne Renegades already had the talented wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert as a pre-signing, Rizwan was selected with the fourth pick.
After passing up Rauf, Adelaide Strikers surprised everyone by selecting England left-arm seamer Luke Wood as a platinum pick with pick No. 3. The Sydney Thunder kept Lockie Ferguson with choice No. 8, while fellow Englishman Sam Curran was left on the table to be chosen by the Sydney Sixers at pick No. 7.
Chris Jordan and Finn Allen, pre-signings, were confirmed as the Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes’ platinum players in the first round.
With their second pick at No. 11, Renegades selected the uncapped USA all-rounder Hassan Khan extremely highly. Khan has been a vital member of the San Francisco Unicorns team early in the MLC season, which is handled by Cricket Victoria’s high performance unit, which also manages Renegades. Khan played one game for Renegades last season.
Thunder traded up in the second round to get Shadab Khan, who was selected with choice No. 12. Shadab, who played three games for the Heat in 2017, four for the Sixers in 2021–22, and five for the Hurricanes in 2022–23, will be joining Thunder for the fourth time in his BBL career.
To increase their spin options, the Hurricanes also selected Rehan Ahmed, a legspinning all-rounder from England, in the fourth round. Both David Payne and Laurie Evans, who previously won BBL titles in Perth, are back with the Scorchers after playing for Strikers and Renegades, respectively, after failing to be retained by the Scorchers the previous season.
With their third-round selection, Strikers got Hasan Ali, another well-liked pacer from Pakistan. After being a surprise pick the previous season, England legspinner Jafer Chohan will return to the Sixers, while keeper-bat Tom Alsop will rejoin the Heat.