The first ever Men’s Hundred auction closed its doors after two days that gave English cricket something it has been missing for a while. A genuine talking point. Several of them, actually.
Eight franchises arrived with targets, budgets and the quiet confidence of people who believe they know what they are doing. By the time the room cleared, Welsh Fire had spent half their money before most people had finished their morning coffee, London Spirit had placed a GBP 390,000 bet on a player who has never worn an England shirt, and Sunrisers Leeds had won a bidding war that carried a significance well beyond the cricket. A lot happened. Here is the version that matters.
James Coles: GBP 390,000
Let’s be direct about James Coles. GBP 390,000 is not a cricket fee. It is a statement. It is London Spirit standing in a room full of competing franchises and saying loudly and expensively that they believe this 20-year-old uncapped batter is already the real thing, not a project, not a prospect, not someone to develop carefully over two or three seasons.
Whether they are right is the single most interesting question heading into The Hundred Men’s 2026 season.
Spirit committed just over a third of their entire budget to one player before the room had properly warmed up. Other franchises pushed the fee into territory that made accountants wince. Spirit did not blink. When it finished Coles was theirs and the record for the most expensive player in the history of The Hundred Men’s competition had been broken before the competition had even held its first auction.
Watch him in the first three or four games. If Coles gets in early and bats with the confidence that fee demands, Spirit could be a genuinely scary proposition. If the weight of GBP 390,000 follows him to the crease and he starts getting out in the 20s and 30s trying to justify the number, the season could turn difficult quickly. There is no easy middle ground when a franchise spends that much on one player from one budget.
For anyone tracking The Hundred Men’s match predictions this summer, every London Spirit game starts with the same question. What is Coles doing today?
Welsh Fire Spend Half Their Budget
Joe Root went first. Literally the first player auctioned in The Hundred Men’s history. Welsh Fire paid GBP 240,000 without hesitation and secured one of the finest batters England has produced in decades.
Then they spent GBP 300,000 on Jordan Cox, who won the MVP award last season with a margin that was not particularly close.
Half the budget. Two players. Before lunch.
The criticism of that spending only holds if you ignore what Welsh Fire already had before either player was purchased. Chris Woakes retained. Marco Jansen retained. Phil Salt retained. Rachin Ravindra retained. Those four names represent genuine international quality at every level of the batting and bowling lineup. Cox and Root are not being asked to carry a thin squad. They are being placed on top of a foundation that was already solid.
Cox as reigning MVP gives Fire the best individual performer from last season as their centrepiece. Root gives them a batter who can win a 100-ball game from any position in any situation on any surface. Put those two together with Salt’s aggression, Ravindra’s composure, Woakes with the new ball and Jansen’s ability to swing it late and you have a squad that covers every scenario a franchise could face.
Welsh Fire are the team to beat in The Hundred Men’s competition. Write it down somewhere you can find it in August.
MI London Put Together a Bowling Attack
Tom Curran cost GBP 260,000. He is reunited with his brother Sam, already retained. Fine. Nice story. Now forget the story for a moment and look at the bowling unit that MI London have actually assembled.
Rashid Khan retained. Trent Boult signed at auction. Sam Curran and Tom Curran as the seam options. This is not a balanced attack. It is a specialist unit built specifically to defend totals that other squads would already be celebrating against.
Boult’s association with MI franchises across global cricket has reached five now. At some point it just becomes his natural habitat. He is one of the best left-arm new-ball operators in the shorter formats anywhere on the planet and he remains devastatingly effective when there is any swing available.
Nicholas Pooran behind the stumps, Will Jacks at the top of the order, Ollie Pope adding batting flexibility in the middle and Jason Roy picking up a late deal at GBP 31,000 because someone at MI London remembered he exists and has been very good at this format for a long time. Solid signing that.
The Hundred Men’s pitches vary. Some will suit batters all day long. But on the surfaces that do something, MI London’s bowling attack is going to be the most dangerous unit in the competition.
Southern Brave Quietly Assemble a Strong Squad
Adil Rashid went to Southern Brave for GBP 250,000. Rashid at one end of the ground and Jofra Archer at the other is a combination that makes batting lineups deeply uncomfortable. Rashid’s googly in the powerplay against batters who haven’t read him properly yet is worth watching specifically this season.
David Miller was the first overseas player sold, going to Brave for GBP 110,000. Smart pickup. Miller in the last quarter of an innings is a matchwinning option that most bowling attacks cannot solve cleanly.
Aiden Markram became the highest paid overseas player in The Hundred Men’s auction at GBP 200,000, heading to Manchester Super Giants. He already plays for them in the IPL and the SA20. The relationship has been built over several seasons and it shows in the fee. Super Giants know what they are getting. So does Markram.
Tom Curran at GBP 260,000 reunited the brothers at MI London. Abrar Ahmed went to Sunrisers Leeds for GBP 190,000 after an auction room bidding war with Trent Rockets that apparently got quite pointed before Leeds held firm.
Pakistan Players Secure Deals Despite Concerns
Before the auction there was genuine anxiety around whether Pakistani players would find buyers given the ownership structures of some franchises. It was not an abstract concern. People were paying real attention to it.
Usman Tariq went to Birmingham Phoenix for GBP 140,000 and became the first Pakistani player sold in The Hundred Men’s auction. Abrar Ahmed went to Sunrisers Leeds for GBP 190,000 shortly after. Sunrisers had identified Abrar as their primary spin target before the bidding started and they committed to him when it mattered.
Two players. Two solid fees. The feared exclusion never materialised and the competition is better for their presence.
High-Profile Players Who Went Unsold
Sikandar Raza went unsold. Lungi Ngidi went unsold. Wanindu Hasaranga went unsold. Azmatullah Omarzai went unsold.
The Hasaranga one is genuinely hard to explain. Wrist spin variations in a 100-ball format on English pitches that take turn later in the season should have attracted more than it apparently did. He will not be the last high-quality overseas player to fall through the gap between what franchises planned to spend and what the bidding actually required.
Finn Allen found a home at Trent Rockets. Ryan Rickelton joined Sunrisers Leeds. Sherfane Rutherford ended up at MI London for what turned out to be a reasonable fee. The competition still has hitting power throughout.
The Hundred Men’s Team Squads
London Spirit: Dewald Brevis, Liam Livingstone, Adam Zampa and Jamie Overton from the retained group, then James Coles, Jonny Bairstow, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Mason Crane, Adam Milne, David Willey, Adam Hose, Tymal Mills, James Rew and Matt Fisher from auction.
Welsh Fire: Marco Jansen, Phil Salt, Rachin Ravindra and Chris Woakes retained, Jordan Cox, Joe Root, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Ben Kellaway, Lockie Ferguson, Asa Tribe, Tom Aspinwall, Matt Short, Sam Cook and Jaffer Chohan added.
MI London: Will Jacks, Rashid Khan, Sam Curran and Nicholas Pooran retained, Trent Boult, Tom Curran, Nathan Sowter, James Vince, Sherfane Rutherford, Richard Gleeson, Ollie Pope, Olly Stone, Ollie Sykes, Callum Parkinson and Jason Roy from auction.
Southern Brave: Jamie Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Tristan Stubbs and Jofra Archer retained, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, David Miller, Luke Wood, Ben McKinney, Thomas Rew, Michael Pepper, Tom Abell, Dan Worrall, Caleb Falconer and Nikhail Chaudhary added.
Trent Rockets: Tim David, Ben Duckett, Mitchell Santner and Tom Banton retained, Finn Allen, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, David Payne, Dan Mousley, Matt Henry, Sam Billings, Aneurin Donald, Ben Mayes, Danny Briggs, Louis Kimber and Brad Currie from auction.
Birmingham Phoenix: Rehan Ahmed, Donovan Ferreira, Mitchell Owen and Jacob Bethell retained, Joe Clarke, Saqib Mahmood, Usman Tariq, Will Smeed, Jordan Thompson, Scott Currie, Laurie Evans, Chris Wood, Ethan Brookes and Mustafizur Rahman added.
Sunrisers Leeds: Nathan Ellis, Mitchell Marsh, Harry Brook and Brydon Carse retained, Abrar Ahmed, Benny Howell, Daniel Lawrence, Tom Lawes, Matthew Potts, Tom Alsop, Zak Crawley, Ryan Rickelton, Liam Patterson-White, Ed Barnard and Reece Topley added.
Manchester Super Giants: Noor Ahmad, Jos Buttler, Heinrich Klaasen and Liam Dawson retained, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Leus du Plooy, Tom Hartley, Aiden Markram, Josh Tongue, Tim Seifert, Tom Moores, Max Holden, Tawanda Muyeye, George Scrimshaw and Paul Walter added.
What to Expect From The Hundred Men’s 2026 Season
Welsh Fire are the favourites and should be treated as such until they give you a reason not to. The squad is balanced, the retained core is strong, and Cox plus Root is a top order partnership that opposing captains will not sleep well thinking about.
MI London will grind teams out. Their bowling is better than most people are crediting and Pooran can win a game with the bat in 15 balls when the mood takes him. Back them in low-scoring matches.
Manchester Super Giants have Jos Buttler. That single fact makes them dangerous in every game they play. Markram and Atkinson around him give the squad range.
Sunrisers Leeds deserve more credit than they are currently getting. Harry Brook batting at three in The Hundred Men’s format is a genuine advantage. Mitchell Marsh gives them allround balance that most squads would happily pay for. Abrar Ahmed on a pitch taking spin is a serious bowling option. Do not write Leeds off.
London Spirit are the most compelling story of the competition. Everything depends on Coles. The GBP 390,000 is spent regardless of what happens next. The only question now is whether he justifies it. Come August, the answer to that question will define the whole season for Spirit.
The Hundred Men’s 2026 competition starts here. Follow along for match predictions, form guides and expert tips as the fixtures are confirmed and the cricket begins.