Shane Warne eyes Mitch Marsh as No.1 pick in The Hundred draft

London Spirit have the first pick in the draft on March 30, having finished the 2021 season propping up the league standings

London Spirit head coach Shane Warne is set to target Mitch Marsh in The Hundred draft, after describing the allrounder as "the hottest player in white-ball cricket at the moment".

Spirit have the first pick in the draft on March 30, having finished the 2021 season propping up the league standings. 

And Warne is ready to commit to Marsh in the £125,000 bracket. The Australia international was a key figure in his country's T20 World Cup triumph in November, and then helped Perth Scorchers to Big Bash glory.

He received an Indian Premier League contract worth £640,000 with Delhi Capitals in the recent mega auction.

^{Shane Warne is putting together London Spirit's squad for 2022}

Warne told Sky Sports: "I know a lot of Australian players are super excited to play in The Hundred. I know Mitch Marsh wants to so he's someone we'd definitely consider as first pick - Mitch Marsh, I think, is probably the hottest player in white-ball cricket at the moment."

One problem facing Warne and other Hundred administrators in 2022 is the fluid nature of the international and franchise calendar.

Australia are due to face Zimbabwe in a white-ball series from late August, which could rule out several Hundred-bound players, while the Caribbean Premier League may well crossover the latter stages of the competition.

Warne has five squad places to fill with Spirit, plus an overseas wildcard and a Vitality Blast wildcard.

"I've got scribbled out about eight names for first pick," he said.

"There's an additional overseas [player per squad] this year so you've got the four overseas, you've got the wildcard pick, you've got retention, plus a right-to-match. It's a bit like Sudoku, working out if all the pieces are going to come together."

Eoin Morgan and Glenn Maxwell moving to the £100,000 price bracket have given Spirit more leeway at the top of the draft, with dozens of star international names expected to be available.

^{Mitch Marsh is being eyed by Warne as the No.1 draft pick}

It should mean that Warne can put together a squad capable of significant improvements on their poor 2021 campaign.

"We were really poor. We were terrible," Warne said. "It was disappointing from my point of view: I wanted to dip my toe in the water into coaching. It was fantastic to work with Eoin Morgan and to have that opportunity to see how he thinks about the game but I got Covid, so I missed five or six of the games.

"I'd like to think I was always a little bit ahead of the game, tactics and thinking-wise, but we couldn't quite execute some of those things last year. This year, we've done a bit of a cleanout. We lost four games off the last ball or by a couple of runs… but the bottom line is we won one game. We came last, so I'm pretty annoyed about that."