2023/24 GameDay Squad AUS Cricket Team Preview: The Strikers didn’t have a great BBL12. After winning their opening three matches they only managed two more wins in their last eleven matches. They ended up failing to reach the finals and this was the first finals series that they weren’t part of since BBL8. Over the history of the BBL, the Strikers have one championship and have had five visits to the finals. They have played 136 matches, won 67, lost 66 and had 3 no result.
This season the Strikers go into the BBL13 with five new faces, and they are D’Arcy Short, Brendan Doggett, James Bazley, Jamie Overton and David Payne. We have seen the number of matches in the round robin decrease from fourteen to ten for each team this season. For the Strikers to reach the finals, I believe the magic number of wins will need to be five. I think the Strikers will be battling it out with Hurricanes for the fifth finals spot and I’m leaning towards the Strikers just missing out on the finals. It’s likely that the Strikers will be without Head and Carey for most and maybe the entire BBL due to Test duties. Their leading spin bowler and crowd favourite Rashid Khan will also miss BBL13 due to a minor back operation.
The Strikers open their season against the Heat at the Adelaide Oval on the 9th of December. On top of Head, Carey and Khan likely being unavailable, Bazley is also set to miss this match due to a hamstring injury. The Strikers were good in Adelaide for BBL12 and won four of their seven matches. They will need to be at the top of their game if they are to beat the Heat first up.
Squad (Averages and position rank for BBL12 included)
Adam Hose – Batter, Avg 32, Rank 17
Henry Hunt – Batter, Avg 23, Rank 24
Thomas Kelly – Batter, Avg 14, Rank 34
Chris Lynn – Batter, Avg 50 Rank 4
Matthew Short – All-rounder, Avg 68, Rank 2
Jake Weatherald – Batter, Avg 7, Rank 39
Travis Head – Batter, Avg 14, Rank 35
D'arcy Short – All-Rounder, Avg 21, Rank 23
James Bazley – All-Rounder, Avg 38, Rank 11
Rashid Khan – All-rounder, Avg 29, Rank 19
Jamie Overton – All-rounder (Did not play in BBL12)
Alex Carey – Wicketkeeper, Avg 45, Rank 3
Harry Nielsen – Wicketkeeper, Avg 19, Rank 10
Cameron Boyce – Bowler, Avg 30, Rank 27
Ben Manenti – Bowler, Avg 21, Rank 32
Wes Agar – Bowler, Avg 43, Rank 9
Brendan Doggett – Bowler, Avg 28, Rank 29
Henry Thornton – Bowler, Avg 49, Rank 5
David Payne – Bowler, Avg 51, Rank 3
BBL12 stats from matches played at the Adelaide Oval.
· Seven games played; Strikers won four of them.
· Team winning the toss won two matches.
· Team batting first won four matches.
· Average first innings score of 171 (lowest 92 / highest 229)
· Batter GDS average 37 points per match
· All-rounder GDS average 38 points per match
· Bowler GDS average 34 points per match
· Wicketkeeper GDS average 20 points per match
· 77 wickets taken by bowlers, 49 to seam and 28 to spin
Player To Watch – Chris Lynn (Batter)
Lynn holds the record of the most runs scored in the BBL with 3421 runs in 113 matches. Since 2019, Lynn has only been playing T20s and he’s very experienced in this format with over 250 T20 matches. He had a very good BBL12 scoring three fifties and three scores of 30+ runs, averaging 38 runs for the tournament. This worked out to be an average of 50 points in GDS and he was the fourth ranked batter for BBL12. Lynn has recently been playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 competition where he’s had two ducks and a high score of only one. I’m not reading too much into this as I believe he will be back to his destructive best by the time the BBL starts. In BBL12, Lynn was among the top three batters in seven of his eleven matches. I think we will see him in a lot of coaches starting XIs for the Strikers first game.
Most Valuable Player – Matthew Short (All-Rounder)
In BBL12, Short was a stud as he opened the batting and bowled in every game that he played in. Short was also the top ranked batter based on GDS scoring for players that played more than one match. He was among the top three batters in eleven of his fourteen matches. Short is currently playing for Victoria in the 2023/24 Marsh Cup (Australia’s domestic 50 over competition). He has been in brilliant form and averages 215 with the bat. He has scored 134 vs Queensland and 81 not out against Tasmania. I can’t really see his job role for the Strikers changing too much for BBL13 and I believe he is a must start in every match.
Biggest Bust Candidate - Harry Nielsen (Wicket-Keeper)
Nielsen stepped in at keeper when Carey was on international duties during the BBL12 and he will likely do the same for BBL13. The only reason why Nielsen is my biggest bust candidate is because he didn’t bat any higher than six in the Strikers batting order for BBL12. The first thing I look at when selecting a wicketkeeper is what position they come in at in the batting order. A wicketkeeper that bats any lower than six should be avoided in my opinion. Nielsen only finished as the top wicketkeeper in two of his twelve matches in BBL12. The main reason for this was down to him only having to bat six times in these matches. I believe Nielsen can be a decent option if he bats further up the batting order or if the Strikers opposition’s keeper bats low down the batting order. I honestly can’t really see this happening and he is my biggest bust candidate.
Predicted Starting XI
1. Matthew Short
2. D'arcy Short
3. Chris Lynn
4. Adam Hose
5. Thomas Kelly
6. Jamie Overton
7. Harry Nielsen
8. Ben Manenti
9. Wes Agar
10. Henry Thornton
11. David Payne
