SOMERSET look set to defend their One-Day Cup trophy without seven first-team regulars after a selection of the county's stars were picked up at 'The Hundred' draft on Sunday evening.

The vast majority of the Somerset squad put their names forward for the draft hoping to join Tom Banton, who was snapped up by Welsh Fire as a 'local icon' a fortnight ago, in the inaugural season of the 100-ball competition.

Somerset captain Tom Abell and T20 skipper Lewis Gregory were among those to be selected by the city-based franchises, the nearest of which to Taunton is the Welsh Fire side, whose men's games will be played in Cardiff.

The Somerset players went in to the draft with no reserve price but Gregory was quickly snapped up by Trent Rockets in the £100,000 category, meaning the hard-hitting all-rounder will be based in Nottingham for the competition.

Abell was also selected in the same price category by Manchester Originals, who later picked up Eddie Byrom for £30,000.

Both batsmen will join former Somerset star Jos Buttler in the side based at Old Trafford.

Two Somerset players will be heading to Southampton to represent Southern Brave, with leg-spinner Max Waller and seamer Craig Overton each signed in the £30,000 bracket by the Ageas Bowl team.

Waller's fellow spinner Roelof van der Merwe, meanwhile, will be based at Lord's after London Spirit picked up the all-rounder for £75,000.

Five of those seven played in the final of the Royal London Cup in 2019, which saw Somerset beat Hampshire at Lord's to end a 14-year trophy drought, but they are unlikely to play in the 50-over tournament next summer as it is due to clash with 'The Hundred'.

Tom Banton, who will be lining up alongside Australian stars Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc at Welsh Fire, said: "It is obviously exciting to be linking up with those guys.

"I am not sure how much I am looking forward to facing Starc in the nets! 

"I have watched Smith this summer and what he has done has been pretty cool, so to play alongside him will be fun.

"He is someone I have looked up to over the past year."

On the selection of his teammates, Banton said: "There was a lot of banter going around before the draft about Abes [Tom Abell] going for a lot and he has had a great year, so he thoroughly deserves it.

"Lewis [Gregory] is on the plane to New Zealand at the moment so I'm sure he's following it. I'm really pleased for him."

The full squads are as follows:

Trent Rockets: Rashid Khan, D'Arcy Short, Lewis Gregory, Alex Hales, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Harry Gurney, Steven Mullaney, Matthew Carter, Luke Wood, Tom Moores, Dawid Malan, Ben Cox, Luke Fletcher, Luke Wright, Joe Root.

Southern Brave: Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, James Vince, Andre Russell, David Warner, Shadab Khan, Tymal Mills, Ross Whiteley, Delray Rawlins, Ollie Pope, George Garton, Alex Davies, Max Waller, Craig Overton.

Northern Superchargers: Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Aaron Finch, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Lynn, Adam Lyth, Richard Gleeson, Ben Foakes, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, David Wiese, Nathan Rimmington, Brydon Carse, Ed Barnard, John Simpson.

Welsh Fire: Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Colin Ingram, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, Ben Duckett, Ravi Rampaul, Simon Harmer, Qais Ahmed, Liam Plunkett, Ryan ten Doeschate, David Payne, Ryan Higgins, Danny Briggs, Leus du Plooy.

Oval Invincibles: Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Sam Billings, Sandeep Lamichhane, Rilee Rossouw, Reece Topley, Hardus Viljoen, Fabian Allen, Alex Blake, Will Jacks, Chris Wood, Nathan Sowter, Laurie Evans.

Manchester Originals: Jos Buttler, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Parkinson, Imran Tahir, Dane Vilas, Phil Salt, Tom Abell, Daniel Christian, Wayne Madsen, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Santner, Joe Clarke, Marchant de Lange, Ed Pollock, Eddie Byrom.

London Spirit: Rory Burns, Dan Lawrence, Eoin Morgan, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Amir, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Wood, Joe Denly, Dan Lawrence, Mason Crane, Kyle Abbott, Adam Rossington, Zak Crawley, Jade Dernbach, Luis Reece.

Birmingham Phoenix: Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Pat Brown, Liam Livingston, Kane Williamson, Ravi Bopara, Benny Howell, Tom Helm, Shaheen Afridi, Adam Hose, Cameron Delport, Henry Brookes, Adam Zampa, Riki Wessels, Chris Cooke.