Strikers committed to retaining Rashid in BBL Draft

Would be suitors have been warned: Rashid Khan will play for the Adelaide Strikers in BBL|12.

The Strikers all but confirmed to cricket.com.au that barring any drastic events over the next week they were committed to drafting the Afghanistan superstar in the first round despite the leg-spinner only being available for the first half of the tournament.

Rashid, who has been signed by the Mumbai Indians-owned Cape Town franchise, is expected to be available for Adelaide's first six or seven matches before leaving to play in the new South African T20 league in the first week of January.

Strikers' performance analyst Jarrod Harkness said he would be "extremely surprised" if Rashid wasn't playing for the Strikers in KFC BBL|12.

"Most of the players that are in that platinum range are only available for eight or nine games because they're off to either South Africa or the UAE," said Harkness.

"So basically, if you are going to take a platinum level player, then you're looking at someone who is only going to be here for the first half of the tournament.

"And as we've seen over many years, Rashid's one of the best players, if not the best player in the world.

"So given those other high-quality players are only here for half the tournament, the same as Rash, he's definitely someone that we would be very keen to have here again."

The Strikers hold the fifth pick in Sunday's BBL|12 Draft and Harkness said they would "be ready to go" with their retention pick if another club made a play on him in the first four selections.

"I'd be surprised if he wasn't nominated in the first four picks, if not the first one," he said.

Harkness said the other incentive with selecting Rashid was to ensure they had the option of a retaining him in next year's overseas player draft.

Rashid is also desperate to get back to the Strikers for this year's tournament, revealing Adelaide is a city he would love to call home in the future.

"100 per cent, more than 100 per cent," said Rashid when asked if he wanted the Strikers to pick him in the draft.

"I love my time in Adelaide, if they don't pick me, I will pick up (the paddle).

"I love the Strikers, I love the fans, I love the ground, I love the city – I always have the discussion with the players and my friends that it's a city I would love to live in the future."

With the Strikers expected to welcome back Test stars Alex Carey and Travis Head for their final six regular season matches following the Sydney Test against South Africa from January 4-8, Harkness said they would look to maximise their draft talent even if the players may not be available for the entire tournament.

"Although we won't have Head and Carey for the first part of the tournament due to their Test commitments, we can probably afford to select a player or two that's only available for the first half," he said.

"Because we know we're going to have two really high standard BBL players coming back in for those last five or six matches.

"We've picked our side on paper for the first eight games while we've got our draft players available and then we've picked the side for the last five or six games with Head and Carey back.

"We're just trying to work out if we need one or two players from the draft pool that are going to go right through the whole tournament or how does it look if we go for that little bit of extra quality in the first half of the tournament and have Head and Carey come back in to essentially replace the draft picks for the end of the tournament.

"Would we have a squad that could finish the tournament off and play finals?"

The Strikers parted ways with veteran batter Jon Wells at the end of last season, while Ian Cockbain is not yet on their list being an overseas player, and Harkness said they would look to add to their middle-order through the draft, especially with Head and Carey away for the first half of BBL|12.

"The second half of (last season) when we had Cockbain come into the side, and Head and Carey come back for finals, our batting improved towards the back half of the tournament," he said.

"Our top order batting was very good all the way through the tournament, especially in the first 10 overs and led to us winning a lot of Bash Boost points, but we didn't always have that power hitting to finish off the innings.

"So that's definitely an area we will try and top-up at the draft."

Nearly 300 overseas players nominated for the inaugural BBL Draft, with Rashid one of 12 players elevated to platinum status by the league. Officials are yet to confirm player availability windows, with clubs expected to receive final confirmation later this week ahead of Sunday's televised draft event.

The BBL|12 Draft will be held on Sunday, August 28 and broadcast live on Foxtel and Kayo Sports following the first ODI between Australia and Zimbabwe in Townsville.

Click here for a full list of players to have nominated for the BBL|12 Draft.