Warner, Pollard Among Many Who Are Likely To Skip The Hundred Due To National Commitments

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Many stars -– including Australian David Warner and West Indies' Kieron Pollard -– may skip The Hundred, a new 100-ball format to be played this July-August in England, due to commitments with their national teams and stringent Covid-19 quarantine rules.

These and other stars would mostly be busy with their national teams between July 21 and August 21, when The Hundred, a novel concept of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), is scheduled to be played.

Australian stars Glenn Maxwell, Warner, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, and Jhye Richardson have all signed up for the maiden edition of The Hundred. However, Australia is due to travel to West Indies for five T20 Internationals and three ODIs between July 9 to July 24. And all these players, along with D'Arcy Short, are in the preliminary Australia squad named for the West Indies tour.

Australia may then tour Bangladesh too for a limited-overs series that could act as a warm-up for the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played this October-November in India.

Besides Aussie stars, some prominent West Indies players, like Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, and Nicholas Pooran, may also have to skip the tournament as they will be busy against visiting Australians at home.

West Indies also play Pakistan from July 27 to August 3 in five T20 Internationals and in two Test matches from August 12 to 24.

Three Pakistan players -- Mohammed Amir, Shaheen Afridi, and Shadab Khan -- are in The Hundred. While Amir isn't part of the Pakistan team anymore, both Afridi and Khan are an integral part of Pakistan set-up. They might also skip The Hundred.