Abrar Ahmed has been included in Sunrisers Leeds' The Hundred 2026 squad for £190,000.
After two action-packed days at the Piccadilly Lights in London, the first-ever player auction for England’s unorthodox 100-ball tournament has come to an end. But The Hundred 2026 auction has been hit by massive controversy following the Sunrisers Leeds’ signing of Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed.
The Sunrisers’ head coach Daniel Vettori has emphasised the spinner’s variations and his unfamiliarity among the local players behind the decision to include him in the squad.
“He’s unique in the amount of variations and a lot of, particularly domestic players, won’t have seen him before. We came into the auction with every player available to us. As soon as this option was available there were a number of very good spinners from international teams that were an option, but Abrar was a priority,” said Vettori to BBC Sport.
Earlier, there was a debate around shadow banning the Pakistani players in The Hundred 2026 auction by the Indian franchise owners. But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the eight sides had assured that no player would be excluded on the basis of their nationality ahead of The Hundred 2026 auction.
But as the Pakistani players are not allowed to participate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to the geopolitical tensions between the two neighbouring countries, the signing of Abrar by the Chennai-based media conglomerate, Sunrisers, has created a huge debate among the fans.
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14 players from Pakistan were up for grabs in the maiden auction of the tournament. However, just ahead of the event, star seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi had withdrawn his name from The Hundred 2026 auction. Previously, he had represented the Welsh Fire in his debut season of the league in 2023, scalping six wickets in as many fixtures.
Before Abrar, mystery spinner Usman Tariq became the first Pakistani player to join a franchise in this edition as the Birmingham Phoenix roped him in for £140,000. On the other hand, speedster Harris Rauf, all-rounder Saim Ayub, and spinner Shadab Khan went unsold, following captain Fatima Sana and Sadia Iqbal in The Hundred Women’s 2026 auction the previous day.
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