The Hundred 2026
A thirteen-ball fifty and no Hundred deal
Kamran Dhariwal reached fifty in thirteen balls against Worcestershire in July, equalling the fastest half-century in English domestic T20. He was seven weeks into his professional career. Nobody in The Hundred called him.
Sam Hain leads these six unsigned cricketers in our player ratings. All could have been signed for 2026 without using any of a side’s four overseas slots.
| Player | Plays for | Runs above average (est.) | Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Hain | Warwickshire | +2.4 | 31 |
| Kamran Dhariwal | Gloucestershire | +1.8 | 21 |
| Harrison Ward | Sussex | +1.7 | 26 |
| James Anderson | Lancashire | +1.7 | 44 |
| Luke Hollman | Middlesex | +1.1 | 26 |
| Jake Ball | Somerset | +1.1 | 35 |
Sam Hain: an average of 39, and no bids
Warwickshire · Batter · 31 years old
Trent Rockets kept Tim David, Tom Banton, Ben Duckett and Mitchell Santner over the winter. Hain had played six games for them in 2025. This year nobody signed him at all.
His record deserved more attention. Across the last two seasons in the Blast and the SA20 with Paarl Royals, Hain averaged 39.4 against a batting average of 23.6 across those competitions.
He faces 28 balls for every dismissal, while batters across the Blast and SA20 last 17. That gives a side something useful at number four: a batter who stays long enough to let those below him swing.
He scores quickly enough, too. Across those two seasons in the Blast and SA20, his overall strike rate was 141 against the competitions’ average of 139.
He can finish an innings as well. His death-overs strike rate over that period was 180, against an average death-overs strike rate of 156 in the Blast and SA20. Leaving him unsigned means passing over both staying power and late runs.
Kamran Dhariwal: fifty in nine minutes
Gloucestershire · Batter · 21 years old
Dhariwal went on to make 70 off 22 balls against Worcestershire, hitting eight sixes. It was the innings that made his first summer hard to ignore.
Across his first Blast season, his strike rate was 168 against the competition average of 141.
He was particularly effective in the middle overs, where his strike rate was 166 against the Blast middle-overs average of 134. A side needing someone to give an innings a shove had reason to look closely.
That Worcestershire knock looms large in a season of eleven innings. Gloucestershire nevertheless saw enough to give him a two-year contract in August. He returns to Bristol this month for the third year of his medicine degree.
A Hundred side would have been taking a punt on a brief professional career. The speed with which he got moving made it a worthwhile one.
Harrison Ward: pace at the top
Sussex · Opener · 26 years old
Ward’s powerplay batting makes the strongest case for him. His strike rate in this summer’s Blast powerplays was 172, against the competition’s powerplay average of 143. That is the sort of start an opener is picked to provide.
Across nine Blast innings this summer, he made 258 runs at a strike rate of 168.6 against the competition average of 141.
His record over two seasons is more modest. When he gets going he tears into the bowling, but he does not tend to stay for long. That makes him a more demanding selection than Hain, with a clear role: a left-handed opener sent out to attack from the start.
James Anderson: nobody could get him away
Lancashire · Bowler · 44 years old
Anderson has already made The Hundred reconsider once. After going undrafted last year, he took 20 Blast wickets at 7.85 an over and Manchester Originals picked him up in the wildcard draft.
This summer he conceded 7.42 an over in the Blast, against the competition’s 8.75. Those five appearances gave batters very little room to get after him.
His wicket-taking holds up over longer than a summer. Across the last two Blast seasons, he has taken a wicket every 12.9 balls, against 17.6 for the average bowler. Among Blast bowlers who have delivered at least 200 powerplay balls over that period, only three have been harder to score off.
This year the wildcard went elsewhere. Anderson was still bowling in September while also captaining Lancashire in the County Championship. His case for a new-ball role remains strong enough that another late change of heart would hardly surprise.
Luke Hollman: control through the middle
Middlesex · Leg-spinner · 26 years old
Adil Rashid was bought for £250,000 at the March auction, the highest fee paid for a bowler, to control the middle of an innings. Hollman has a case for that job too.
Through overs seven to fifteen in this year’s Blast, he conceded 7.46 an over against the competition average of 8.13 in those overs. He can keep an innings within reach while the opposition are trying to build towards their finish.
Wickets come less readily. His 27 wickets over two Blast seasons arrived every 20 balls, slower than the competition average of 17.5.
His death bowling also weakens his case for a broader role: he conceded 10.67 an over there this summer.
A side signing Hollman would need to use him where he is strongest. Middlesex have him under contract until 2028, but at 26 he has never been in a Hundred squad. His middle-overs bowling merits that chance.
Jake Ball: 20 wickets, at a price
Somerset · Bowler · 35 years old
Somerset trusted Ball with difficult overs this summer: 86 of his 236 Blast deliveries came from the 16th over onwards.
He took 20 wickets, striking every 11.8 balls against the Blast average of 17.6. Among bowlers who delivered at least 150 balls, only five took wickets more often.
The runs are the price of that threat. Ball conceded 9.53 an over against the competition average of 8.74, and his record across the last two seasons carries the same combination of wickets and expensive overs.
He won the Blast with Somerset last year, taking 2 for 39 in the final. His last Hundred appearance was for Welsh Fire in 2024. A side struggling to bowl opponents out still has a reason to pick him, provided it can absorb the runs that come with his wickets.
The deals that were there to be made
Eighty-seven players were sold at the March auction, with 22 going for the £31,000 minimum. There was room at the cheaper end for a side to back one of these players.
Hain offers the strongest all-round batting case. Anderson’s new-ball record makes his omission difficult to defend. Dhariwal asks for more faith after eleven innings, but his middle-overs hitting gives that faith something concrete to rest on. Each had a role a Hundred side could have used.