London: Pakistan right-arm fast bowler Haris Rauf has been named among the five overseas marquee cricketers for the much-anticipated player auction of The Hundred 2026 to be held here on March 12.
Rauf, who was left out of Pakistan’s Super Eight exiting squad for the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, is one of the first 10 marquee players to be called up in the auction.
Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, James Vince, Jordan Cox and Joe Root are 10 in the two groups, while Aiden Markram, David Miller, Sunil Narine, Daryl Mitchell and Rauff are included in the overseas list.
Rauf is one of only nine Pakistani cricketers to have a man-hundred and 16 wickets in the league in two seasons for the Welsh Fire.
The development came after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today reduced the long list of registered men’s cricketers to 243, including 14 Pakistani players – Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shatab Khan, Usman Tariq, Saim Ayub, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Jamaat Khan, Jamaaz Khan. Wasim, Akif Javed and Salman Mirza.
Pakistan’s in-form opener Sahibzada Farhan, who scored 383 runs in six innings in the 2026 T20 World Cup, is one of the notable omissions from the long list.
Notably, this year’s Men’s Hundred will be held from July 21 to August 16, coinciding with Pakistan’s tour of the Caribbean for a two-match Test series, but their white-ball specialists are expected to be fully available for the league, subject to a no-holds-barred certificate (NOC) from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PBCB).
The upcoming edition of The Hundred will feature the first private investors linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL), whereby four franchises – Manchester Supergiants, MI London, Southern Braves and Sunrisers Leeds – partly owned by Indian investors, will be scrutinized whether they bid for Pakistani players.
Concerns over the selection of Pakistani players for The Hundred emerged following a BBC report that the four franchises linked to the IPL would impose a “shadow ban” on them.
In response, the ECB and all eight The Hundred Team franchises jointly reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring the competition is inclusive, welcoming and accessible.