With the two most effective T20 bowlers of all time and the most capped short-form player joining up for the first foreign player draft, the Big Bash has received a significant boost in star power and experience. Lets look at BBL 2022 Player Draft list.
In the draft pool, Rashid Khan, Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Bravo join players like former South African captain Faf du Plessis. Together, they have played 1476 T20 matches, amassed 20,065 runs, and claimed 1371 wickets.
With head coach Jason Gillespie already saying they will do all in their power to keep the Afghanistan leg-spinner, who has played 61 matches for the club, Rashid, a fan favorite among Strikers supporters, is almost set to return to Adelaide.
Pollard and Bravo are available to be selected by any team and are ineligible to be snared on a retention selection. Their last KFC BBL outings were in the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, respectively.
Both Trinidadians have recently returned after playing in England’s T20 Blast, where Bravo helped the Worcestershire Rapids pick up nine wickets and Pollard assisted Surrey in reaching the quarterfinals.
With 598 games played across 18 clubs, Pollard has the most T20 experience of any player in history. He is also the third-highest run scorer in the history of the format with 11,670 runs at 31.20 and a commanding strike rate of 151.
Bravo ended his international career following the T20 World Cup last year, while the former West Indies white-ball skipper ended his career in April.
Bravo is the second-most capped player with 542 appearances. He has taken 596 wickets, which puts him well ahead of Rashid, who has taken 466, as the top two wicket-takers in T20. Bravo has won 16 international T20 championships, one more than Pollard.
The 24-year-old opening batsman from Afghanistan, Hazratullah Zazai, joins him in the first draft pool with a respectable T20 record of 2308 runs at a strike rate of 144 in 82 matches in the Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh leagues. The star leggie has high expectations for him.
Along with fellow leg-spinner Qais Ahmad, who is qualified for retention by the Melbourne Stars after taking 13 wickets in 10 matches last season, the two are among six Afghan players who have submitted nominations.
Since the draft’s announcement three weeks ago, more than 100 player nominations have been made. New Zealander and championship-winning Scorcher Colin Munro is the other international now up for retention, however more players are anticipated to be named shortly.
12 draft nominations so far (Public BBL)
Afghanistan: Rashid Khan, Qais Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Waqarullah Ishaq, Izharulhaq Naveed, Naveen-ul-haq Murid, Hazratullah Zazai
Namibia: David Wiese
New Zealand: Colin Munro, Todd Astle
South Africa: Faf du Plessis, Marchant de Lange, Rilee Rossouw
West Indies: Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sheldon Cottrell, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre, Ravi Rampaul, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair, Tion Webster, Nyeem Young
