After Babar Azam Goes Unsold In The Hundred Draft, James Anderson's Outrageous Claim

England pacer James Anderson expressed his disappointment after Pakistan captain Babar Azam was overlooked during the Hundred draft last week. During the Hundred draft last week, 30 men's cricketers were picked across the eight teams and overall 64 players were picked up across the men's and women's categories. While Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf were picked by Welsh Fire, Babar went unsold, having entered the draft with a reserve price of 100,000 british pounds (approx. Rs 8.2 lakh).

Anderson shared his views on the reasons behind Babar getting snubbed during the draft, adding that he would've spent the entire budget on getting the Pakistan captain.

"I'll pay double for him [Babar Azam]. I'll spend the whole budget on Babar Azam. The only thing I can guess is that there might have been an availability issue, which is why he wasn't picked," Anderson sain on BCC's Tailender Podcast.

Anderson also recalled how he was also once overlooked when he entered the IPL auction.

"I went into the IPL auction once and didn't get picked up," Anderson added.

Notably, Anderson had entered the IPL acution in 2011, but remained unsold.

Since then, he has not shown any interest of playing in the cash-rich league.

Meanwhile, Babar has been one of the best and most consistent limited-overs batters in the last few years having occupied the top spots in the ICC batters' rankings in both T20Is and ODIs.

He had a very good T20 World Cup last year in the UAE where he finished as the leading run-scorer with 303 runs and led Pakistan to the semifinals where they lost to the eventual champions Australia.