Joe Root and Adil Rashid will headline the list of players set to go under the hammer during the first ever auction in The Hundred. All 16 franchises enter the 2026 player auction with updated team budgets after a series of outright signings and retentions. Four women’s teams and all men’s teams were given salary cap deductions after making the maximum number of signings allowed during the pre-auction window. This development sets the stage for the auction, where each team tries to strengthen their squad from over 200 eligible players.
Among the women’s teams, Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Southern Brave and Trent Rockets had £360,000 taken from their available funds for four sign-or-keep deals. In comparison, Manchester Super Giants Women, MI London Women, Sunrisers Leeds Women and Welsh Fire Women, who have only signed three players, will enter the auction with a £310,000 deduction from their original £880,000 wage pot, leaving them more flexibility in bidding.
On the men’s side, each franchise had £950,000 deducted from the £2.05m total salary cap after all four allowed pre-auction signings had been made. The first report also suggests that IPL franchises are not allowed to look at Pakistani players during the auction.
WHAT’S NEW ON THE HUNDRED?
This year marks a change in roster rules where franchises can sign up to four overseas players, up from the previous limit of three. This adjustment gives teams more options, especially as they navigate the expanded player pool and new auction structure.
The player auction will take place at Piccadilly Lights on Wednesday March 11 for the women and Thursday March 12 for the men. The Women’s Auction kicks off the proceedings, featuring the likes of Beth Mooney, Nadine de Klerk and Amy Jones. The men’s auction follows, with Jason Holder available as the main players alongside Root and Rashid.
Players will be divided into three tiers in the auction: Hero, Rated and Nominated. In the first phase, the hero players will be auctioned, in the next phases, the listed and nominated players will follow. This tiered system is based on the amount of aggregated pre-registered interest from each team.
Several notable players have already been retained or signed ahead of the auction. Jacob Bethell (Birmingham Phoenix), Jos Buttler (Manchester Super Giants) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (Trent Rockets) are among those confirmed, with Mitchell Marsh (Sunrisers Leeds), Alice Capsey (Birmingham Phoenix) and Smriti Mandhana (Manchester Super Giants) also joining the new teams for 2026.
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Published on:
February 20, 2026