Afridi, Rizwan and Rauf among top picks at BBL overseas drafts

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Pakistan stars Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan and Haris Rauf were the most popular selections at the BBL overseas drafts with Afridi selected No.1 overall on Thursday and seven Pakistan players taken in total.

Nearly every club in the draft would have taken Afridi with their first pick after he nominated for the BBL draft for the first time with availability for the whole season. Brisbane Heat had no hesitation in taking the left-arm quick who will join all-star pace attack alongside Spencer Johnson, Michael Neser and Xavier Bartlett.

Rauf will return to Melbourne Stars who needed to use their retention pick to keep him after Adelaide Strikers tried to poach Rauf with pick No.2.

Rizwan was taken with the fourth pick by Melbourne Renegades despite already having dynamic wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert as a pre-signing.

Adelaide Strikers pulled a slight surprise by selecting England left-arm seamer Luke Wood as a platinum pick with pick No.3 after missing out on Rauf. That left fellow Englishman Sam Curran on the table to be selected by Sydney Sixers at pick No.7 while Sydney Thunder retained Lockie Ferguson with pick No.8.

Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes confirmed pre-signings Finn Allen and Chris Jordan as their platinum players in round one.

Renegades picked uncapped USA allrounder Hassan Khan very high with their second pick at No.11. Khan played one game for Renegades last season and has been a key contributor to San Francisco Unicorns team early in the MLC season, with Unicorns managed by Cricket Victoria's high performance team who also run Renegades.

Shadab Khan was taken by Thunder with pick No.12 who had traded up in the second round to get him. Thunder will be Shadab's fourth different BBL club after playing three games for Heat in 2017, four with Sixers in 2021-22 and five with Hurricanes in 2022-23.

Rishad Hossain was the only Bangladesh player taken in the draft with Hurricanes picking him with pick No.13. Hossain was selected by Hurricanes last season but was withdrawn from the tournament after he wasn't granted an NOC.

Hurricanes also selected England legspinning allrounder Rehan Ahmed in the fourth round to bolster their spin options. Laurie Evans and David Payne return to Scorchers having won BBL titles in Perth previously but both were unable to be retained last season by Scorchers and played at Renegades and Strikers respectively.

Strikers added another popular Pakistan pacer in Hasan Ali with their third-round pick. England keeper-bat Tom Alsop will return to Heat while England legspinner Jafer Chohan will return to Sixers after being a surprise selection last season.

Adelaide Strikers: Luke Wood, Jamie Overton, Hasan Ali

Brisbane Heat: Shaheen Shah Afridi, Colin Munro, Tom Alsop

Hobart Hurricanes: Chris Jordan, Rishad Hossain, Rehan Ahmed

Melbourne Renegades: Mohammad Rizwan, Hassan Khan, Tim Seifert

Melbourne Stars: Haris Rauf, Tom Curran, Joe Clarke

Perth Scorchers: Finn Allen, Laurie Evans, David Payne

Sydney Sixers: Sam Curran, Babar Azam, Jafer Chohan

Sydney Thunder: Lockie Ferguson, Shadab Khan, Sam Billings

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