Taylor, Hasnain, Smeed in final batch of players for BBL draft
Ross Taylor, Mohammad Hasnain and Will Smeed are among the final batch of players confirmed for the BBL draft on Sunday taking the total of number of registered players to 332.
Hasnain, who is eligible for retention having played with Sydney Thunder last season, is one of two more players in the final group, which were received shortly before the nominations closed on Sunday. Fellow Pakistani Fakhar Zaman is the other having played one game for Brisbane Heat in the 2021-22 edition.
Hasnain had his bowling action reported during last year’s competition but has since been cleared to resume bowling.
Pakistan represents the majority of the additional names in the draft and includes Test opening pair Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq as well as middle-order white-ball hitter Khushdil Shah.
Taylor, who is now retired from international cricket, could be an interesting option if a team is looking for an experienced batter as he does not have any conflicting deals at the moment.
Smeed is the highly-rated young English batter who has a strike-rate of 146.23 from 52 T20 matches and he recently became the first player to hit a century in the men’s Hundred. He has already gained global interest and has an ILT20 deal with MI Emirates in January.
Off the 332 players lined up for the draft, 28 are eligible for retention by clubs they played for last season. The first 12 players are part of the platinum list, which was announced on Monday, with the rest following in gold, silver and bronze categories.
A maximum of 24 players will be signed during the draft with clubs needing to pick a minimum of two and maximum of three names.
