3 things to look forward to in the Men's Hundred 2024

The fourth edition of the Men's Hundred is set to commence on Tuesday, July 23, with the defending champions Oval Invincibles taking on Birmingham Phoenix at the Oval. The eight-team competition will follow the tried and tested format of each side playing eight games in the round-robin stage until August 15.

The top-ranked side will advance directly to the grand finale and the second finalist will be decided by the battle between the second and third-placed sides on the points table.

While Phil Salt is the all-time leading run-scorer of the tournament with 707 runs, Adil Rashid leads the wicket-taking charts with 31 wickets.

The numbers aside, the upcoming edition of Hundred will also be pivotal for the competition's future. With the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) looking for private investors, including IPL franchises, from the 2025 season, how much the Hundred 2024 captures the global audience could be defining.

Yet, for the sake of coherence, we shall focus on the on-field aspects and look at three things to look forward to in the Men's Hundred 2024.

#1 Harry Brook's captaincy could make or break his case as England's potential white-ball skipper

Northern Superchargers Men v Welsh Fire Men - The Hundred - (Source: Getty)

Following England's dismal last few months in white-ball cricket, discussions surrounding Jos Buttler's captaincy future have been doing the rounds. With the next T20 World Cup scheduled for 2026 and the ODI World Cup only in 2027, the time is right for England to press the reset button.

Under Buttler, England endured a torrid 2023 ODI World Cup campaign, missing out on semi-final qualification. Their performance was only slightly better in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, where defeats to Australia and South Africa were followed by a 68-run pounding against India in the semi-final.

With Buttler heading towards the fag end of his illustrious career at 33, England could look at the Hundred as the ideal platform for their next white-ball captain. Could the generational talent Harry Brook lead the Northern SuperChargers to their first final and ultimately the title to stake his claim to lead England next?

The 25-year-old will miss the initial stages of the competition due to the third England-West Indies Test. Yet, taking over a franchise that hasn't set the tournament on fire in the first three editions and righting the wrong from previous seasons could be what tilts England's white-ball captaincy in Brook's favor.

#2 Answers to England's T20I middle-order conundrum

Can Jamie Smith be England's next T20I middle-order star?

The 2024 T20 World Cup exposed England's middle-order frailties, making a fix in that department paramount before the next edition in 2026. Only Harry Brook impressed in the middle-order with an average of 72.50 and a strike rate of 157.60 in eight outings.

The middle-order woes meant England depended heavily on openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt for miraculous knocks far too often. While the duo delivered as much as realistically possible with averages of 42.80 and 37.60, the number of matches they had to carry the batting lineup eventually became one too many.

Apart from Brook, the other three middle-order batters - Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, and Liam Livingstone flattered to deceive all too often with averages of 27.50, 14.20, and 18 in the 2024 T20 World Cup.

With the first two also getting up there in age and Livingstone far too inconsistent at No.6, England will likely focus on instilling younger and more in-form batters in the middle order going forward.

It opens up opportunities for Will Jacks, who was part of the T20 World Cup squad, to continue making his claim to be a regular at No.3 or 4.

Wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith, who had an excellent 2023 Hundred season and made his Test debut in the ongoing West Indies series, could be another one chomping at the bit of potentially breaking through to the English T20I middle order.

#3 Fourth-time lucky for a defending champion like IPL 2011?

Oval Invincibles Men v Manchester Originals Men - The Hundred Final - Source: Getty

Enough England and their T20I future. It's time to focus solely on the 2024 Hundred season and see if the pattern from the first three editions finally gets broken.

While the Southern Brave triumphed in the inaugural season of the Hundred in 2021, they struggled in 2022 with a second-to-bottom finish. The Trent Rockets, who finished third in 2021, emerged victorious in 2022.

However, they too struggled in their title defense with a fifth-place finish in 2023 as the Oval Invincibles became a third first-time champion in as many years. Manchester Originals have finished as the runners-up over the past two seasons with two heartbreakingly close defeats in the summit clash.

A similar trend was seen in the IPL when three different champions - Rajasthan Royals (RR), Deccan Chargers, and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) emerged in the first three seasons from 2008 to 2010.

However, CSK finally broke that trend when they made it back-to-back in 2011, inflicting a second final defeat in three years on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

Can the Oval Invincibles do a CSK of 2011 by becoming the first back-to-back champion of the Hundred? Will we see one of the first two winners triumph for a second time or will it be a fourth first-time champion? All these will be answered in the next month of high-octane action.

Edited by Ankush Das