In the first round of the inaugural Men’s Hundred auction, the seasoned Haris Rauf failed to draw a bid and was unsold. The Pakistani speedster has a lot of experience playing T20 cricket, both internationally and in major franchise events worldwide, so this is somewhat unexpected. In the past, he represented Welsh Fire.
The first Men Hundred auction will be held on Thursday, March 12, at Piccadilly Lights which is a venue in Central London. Rauf was the first Pakistani to be sold in the first round of the auction with a base price of 100,000 pounds. But none of the franchises appeared to be willing to engage him, and there was silence at the tables.
Later Shadab Khan, a spin-bowling all-rounder of Pakistan also went unsold. The performance of the aging campaigner in the bat and ball in the recently concluded T20 world cup in Men in Green was not impressive. In the same way, Shadab priced the same as Rauf.
In 264 Twenty20 games Rauf has had 361 wickets with an average of 21.93 and a strike rate of 15.50 so far. He has an economy rate of 8.43. Shadab on his part has played 342 twenty 20 games where he has taken 368 wickets with an economy of 7.60 and 3723 runs with an average of 19.09.
Usman Tariq joins Birmingham Phoenix, Abrar Ahmed goes to Sunrisers Leeds
Usman Tariq, the mystery spinner of Pakistan was signed by Birmingham Phoenix at 140,000 pounds. The performance of Tariq was among the limited good parts Pakistan had in their T20 world cup tournament. His services were eventually acquired by the team based in Edgbaston, even though the Trent Rockets were the other team offering him the services in the auction.
Tariq was the highest wicket taker in the 2026 T20 world cup in Pakistan. He got 10 wickets with an average of 14.10 in five games. It shall also be interesting to see how he will adapt to the conditions at UK bowling. His assistance in bowling will not be comparable to what he got in Sri Lanka during the ICC event mentioned above.
However, a bidding war between Sunrisers Leeds and Trent Rockets was initiated by his fellow spinner, Abrar Ahmed, who had a base price of 75,000 pounds. He was eventually signed by Leeds for an incredible 190,000 pounds. Abrar claimed six wickets at an average of 19 and an economy rate of 7.60 in four T20 World Cup games.
