After last week's Hundred auction, counties will now be able to piece together their player-availability over the course of the season, including for the One Day Cup, which takes place concurrently with The Hundred.
Some of those who failed to secure franchise contracts could make a significant impact for their county teams in the One Day Cup, which provides opportunities to blood younger players while attention is focussed on The Hundred lights.
*This list includes players who entered themselves for the auction, but were not included on the longlist
Sam Hain
Hain set his base-price at the lowest possible £31,000 in the auction. But having had a poor Hundred season last year where he scored just 17 runs across four innings for Trent Rockets, he didn't make the jump from entrant to the longlist. The Hundred's loss, however, is the One Day Cup's gain. He has an eye-watering average of 70.8 from his 35 List-A matches for Warwickshire, and was the tournament’s highest run scorer when the Bears took home the trophy in 2016.
However, Hain has only appeared once in the One Day cup since 2019, having featured in every previous edition of The Hundred, and hasn’t played a List-A game since September 2023, when he got his only England call up for Ireland’s three-match ODI visit. In the only game completed in that series. Hain showed exactly how he could fit into the international game, his solid 89 from 82 balls anchoring England’s 334-8. The consistent presence of Joe Root, however, has prevented him from featuring in the format since. Nevertheless, Hain only needs to push his career average in the format up by 1.18 to re-take his place as the batter with the highest List A average of all time.
Jordan Clark
Another experienced county pro who will be missing out on the Hundred this time is 35-year-old Jordan Clark. After not making a huge impact in his 12 appearances for Oval Invincibles and Northern Superchargers across the last two seasons, Clark was passed over. Clark is another who has only sporadically featured in List A cricket over the last five years, having played just two matches in the One Day Cup since 2019. Clark’s presence, however, could bring some needed experience to Surrey’s bowling attack, which was made up of a mostly very young group last year.
The highly reliable bowling all-rounder has been a mainstay in Surrey’s three-time winning County Championship side since moving down from Old Trafford in 2019, while a counter-attacking hundred smashed in two sessions against Notts in 2023 shows what he can do down the order. In his most List-A appearance in 2023, he took two wickets and struck a breezy 55 against Kent.
Ollie Robinson
A hard-hitting keeper-batter who 'likes to score runs and hit boundaries,' Robinson played eight matches for Northern Superchargers in the 2024 Hundred with a modest top score of 25, but has the One Day Cup pedigree to have a big impact for Durham this year.
He was the third highest scorer in the competition in 2022, winning the tournament with former club Kent, scoring 534 runs at 59, and a strike rate of 123. That included a borderline terrifying 206* from just 131 balls, as Kent chased down Worcestershire’s 351 with more than five overs to spare. He had another solid One Day Cup season last year in his first campaign for Durham, racking up 253 runs at an average over 50 - the highlight of which was an even 100 tonked from 79 balls against a decent Sussex attack. As an aggressive batter who couldn’t get a gig in the Hundred, no Durham batter scored more runs at a higher strike rate than Robinson in the competition last year.
Farhan Ahmed
Unlike big brother Rehan – who was pre-signed by Birmingham Phoenix for £250,000 –, Farhan didn’t land a Hundred deal this season, but 2026 could still be a breakout year for the highly rated young offie. He’s already broken a number of age-related records for Nottinghamshire, becoming the county’s youngest ever first-class player against Surrey in 2024, and rewriting the history books by taking 10 wickets in the match. Last summer, aged just 17 at the time, he was a last-minute call-up to Manchester Originals, replacing Marchant de Lange and emulating his brother in receiving a Hundred contract before turning 18.
Ahmed has so far only featured once for Notts in List-A cricket, playing at 16 in the One Day Cup against Leicestershire in 2024. He does, however, have six T20 Blast appearances under his belt, having made his debut in the competition last year.. A five-wicket-haul against Lancashire, including a hattrick, suggests that he could make the One Day Cup his stage this year.
John Turner
Quick and accurate, the right arm seamer could be a potent option for Hampshire this year. Still only 24, he’s been on England’s radar for a while, playing two T20Is and two ODIs in the West Indies 18 months ago. Those numbers could be higher without injuries getting in the way, although Turner was dropped from their developmental contracts list last year.
Turner made his List-A bow in the One Day Cup in 2021, and was a standout performer in the 50-over side the following summer. He claimed 20 wickets, the joint second highest in the 2022 tournament, as Hampshire reached the semi-finals. He made a rapid ascent in the T20 format too, going from his professional debut in a Blast game in 2023 to a national call-up 70 days later.
The Hampshire man has a welcome knack of taking big wickets, dismissing Alastair Cook in his 50-over debut, then sending Johnny Bairstow packing in his first Hundred game in 2023. With Turner’s ascendancy hitting a reset point, an extended period of domestic matches, should he stay injury free, could provide him a solid platform from which to re-launch.
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