Pope Replaces Bairstow At Welsh Fire As England’s Centrally-Contracted Player

Next year, Jonny Bairstow will have to sign another deal with Welsh Fire or enter into a mini-draft because the wicketkeeper-batsman will miss out on his core deal for the England Test. As part of the original list of 18 players announced for The Hundred, Welsh replaced Bairstow with one of the new central contract holders, Ollie Pope. All the eight teams get a contracted England Test player, according to the rules of the competition. Last year, Bairstow, who was in fine form in IPL 2020, was assigned to Welsh.