Liam Livingstone, the hard-hitting all-rounder will be leading the Birmingham Phoenix Men after being named the new captain of the franchise ahead of the 2025 edition of the Hundred. Livingstone will succeed former England all-rounder Moeen Ali in the role, who decided to skip the fifth edition of the Hundred as part of his retirement from domestic cricket. Livingstone is the highest run-getter for the Phoenix across four seasons and will aim to revitalise his white-ball career after a poor Champions Trophy.
Livingstone led the ODI team in the absence of Jos Buttler in the West Indies last year and is widely-regarded as a senior player part of the leadership group in the England setup. Since, Livingstone has been picked by the RCB for IPL 2025, the senior Englishman will also learn a lot working with the likes of Virat Kohli, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rajat Patidar.
The Phoenix retained most of their core from the last season including the New Zealand pace duo of Tim Southee and Adam Milne while completing the trio by settling on Trent Boult as the direct overseas signing. With Moeen not being there, Phoenix also added Joe Clarke as the opener-wicketkeeping option and brought back pacer Tom Helm during the draft. The teams will be allowed to choose a couple of more players in the squad as wildcard picks at the end of May.
Apart from Phoenix, a couple of other men's teams are set to have new captains as well for the fifth edition of the Hundred. London Spirit picked the veteran Kiwi Kane Williamson as the new captain after releasing Dan Lawrence, who then was acquired by the Northern Superchargers in the draft. The 2022 champions Trent Rockets are yet to name their captain after Lewis Gregory was released as well, who joined the Manchester Originals during the draft last week.
Birmingham Phoenix squad: Liam Livingstone (c), Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Benny Howell, Dan Mousley, Will Smeed, Chris Wood, Aneurin Donald, Joe Clarke, Harry Moore, Tom Helm, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Tim Southee