The Hundred 2025: James Anderson roped in by Manchester Originals as wildcard player

Former England cricketer James Anderson will be joining Manchester Originals for the upcoming edition of The Hundred. He was acquired by the Originals as one of their couple of wildcard picks ahead of the white-ball carnival. Anderson has never played in the tournament before.

If the legendary former English seamer ends up featuring for the Originals, he will become the second-oldest player ever in the history of The Hundred, behind Imran Tahir. The ex-South African cricketer was 43 years and 149 days old when he previously played back in 2022.

Anderson is currently representing Lancashire in the ongoing instalment of the Vitality Blast. He has been in fine form in the eight matches they have played so far. The 42-year-old has secured a total of 14 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 7.75.

Coming to more about the drafted players, each team gets to select two men's and women's players in the Vitality Wildcard Draft for The Hundred and The Women's Hundred, respectively, to solidify their squads. The idea behind the same is to provide quite an enticing chance for the unselected platers to showcase their skills to put themselves amongst the running in the first three months of the English domestic cricket season.

Anderson was previously overlooked at the original draft, which had taken place in March. All 32 Vitality Wildcard selections (16 each for the eight teams in the men's and women's competition) is expected to be out by 11 am (BST) on Tuesday, July 15.

The seasoned campaigner last played a white-ball game for England in 2015. He devoted all his focus on the red-ball format from 2015 to 2024, by when he had already mastered Test cricket with his exemplary skills with the ball. Anderson turned out to be an absolute legend of Test cricket. All in all, he accumulated a total of 991 wickets in a stellar international career.

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Anderson had previously registered in the Indian Premier League 2025 auction as well, but things did not go as planned for the experienced veteran. His name was shortlisted, but did not find any bidders ahead of the season where RCB eventually emerged victorious.