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Kane Williamson
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has withdrawn from the maiden edition of The Hundred because of his elbow injury. He took his name back from his £80,000 (US$110,000) contract with Birmingham Phoenix. The Blackcaps captain has been managing this injury for the last six months. Earlier, he had also pulled out of an ODI series against Bangladesh due to the same reason. Williamson even missed the beginning of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League. He also sat out of the second Test match against England so that he could recover in time for the ICC World Test Championship final.
Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi is also going to pull out from Birmingham, Phoenix. He is a part of Pakistan's T20I and Test tour of the West Indies. On the other hand, Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan will miss at least the first half of the group stage for Manchester Originals as he is in Pakistan's T20I team. Moreover, WI all-rounder Andre Russell is also likely to miss the first half of the group stage as he is returning to West Indies' T20I squad for home series against Australia and Pakistan. Last month, Australia's opening batsman David Warner and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis pulled out of the inaugural edition of The Hundred. The duo was set to play for Southern Brave.
The Hundred will feature eight teams
An innings in The Hundred will encompass 100 deliveries. The change of ends will only happen after ten balls have been bowled. The game's new format was supposed to take place in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The highly anticipated tournament, organized by the England Cricket Board, is now going to start on July 21. There will be a men's edition along with the women's competition, which is likely to start on July 22.
Meanwhile, the BCCI has also given NOCs to five women cricketers to play in the women's edition of The Hundred. As per ESPNCricinfo, the other five Indian players who are going to be a part of the tournament are Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodriguez, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, and Harmanpreet Kaur.