Australian Domestic Cricket

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Up next are the Stars, who have definitely lived up to their name. These guys are one of two teams I know will be very, very tricky to pare down to 11 and 18.

1. Luke Wright. Early spoiler - Lasith Malinga will not be in this team. That's because the Stars have three of the more iconic imports in BBL history. Wright is maybe the least effective, but he was still brilliant - playing in each of the first seven BBLs, he averaged 29 at 131 with the bat, including the third ever BBL ton - 117 off 60 balls against Hobart in BBL|01. Also a handy bowler. Given his status as an international, it may surprise that he's fourth in games played for the Stars.
2. Marcus Stoinis. And here's the guy with the second most. The Stoin's one of the BBL's premier players, a destructive hitter who also bowls medium-fast. 36 wickets at 21 is highly impressive, but even more so when the same player averages 37 at 133 with the bat. Stoinis' most famous BBL moment was the biggest ever BBL ton at the time (more on that later), but he also has a four-wicket haul.
3. Kevin Pietersen. Of all Stars batsmen who qualify, only three players have a better average than KP - Brad Hodge, who doesn't qualify by virtue of being on Adelaide, and Marcus Stoinis. KP's average of 37.00 (compared to 37.04 for Stoin) at 137 makes him one of the Stars' best ever batsmen. Never made a BBL hundred, but 10 of his 33 innings were fifties, with a high score of 76.
4. Glenn Maxwell. And here's Mr Star. Maxwell won't bring up 100 BBL games as a result of his leg fracture, but unless the Stars make it to the BBL Final this year, he'll remain the all-time appearance leader. He has that many games because he averages 35 at 152 with the bat, and has 36 wickets at 31 with the ball as a very useful sixth option. Maxi's best ever BBL moment was the CURRENT biggest ever BBL ton, passing Stoinis, although it should be noted that I was in the crowd when THIS happened, and it's the biggest cheer I've heard at a Heat game.
5. Peter Handscomb. Handscomb isn't a premier-tier Stars icon like the above four, but he is by far their best ever wicket-keeper. While he was mainly known for steady play - averaging 28 with a strike rate a tick over 120 - his crowning moment was a hundred in the same vein as Travis Head's NYE knock.
6. Hilton Cartwright. It may shock you that this isn't David Hussey - a veritable Stars icon in the early years - but the simple truth is that Cartwright has been nuts since joining the Stars. Admittedly, some of that has come from a notable improvement since opening, but he's also able to do a job as a late hitter - an average of 33 at 138 shows his skill. He was Stoinis' sidekick for his big ton, but had his own crowning moment last year - after the Heat quicks reduced the Stars to 3/16, Cartwright (batting at five) and Joe Clarke took charge, each setting a BBL high score (79 for Hilton) and setting a target too high for Brisbane. Also a decent medium pacer in an emergency.
7. James Faulkner. I was agonising over whether to actually drop Faulkner to eight, as the Stars have the bowling strength afforded by Maxwell and Stoinis not to need to carry frontline bowlers from 7 through 11. I did decide to do the latter, though. Faulkner's famous for his finishing skills internationally, and does average 28 in the BBL - albeit at a really poor strike rate for some reason. His bowling, though, is undeniably valuable - 44 wickets at 23, with a best of 4/46 in the same game as Wright.
8. John Hastings. Hastings is best known as a big quick, but also had high BBL value as a late slugger in the Rashid Khan mould. The Duke, so called as a result of his given names being John Wayne, was still the Stars' highest wicket-taker all-time until last year, despite retiring after BBL|06 due to a lung condition. In that final season, he had his only BBL four-wicket haul - 4/29 against the Renegades, in a match also featuring Luke Wright's second ton, which I even forgot existed.
9. Adam Zampa. The only frontline spinner in the starting XI, Zampa's a Stars legend, even though his BBL career actually started in Adelaide. Since moving across for BBL|05, the leggie has 82 wickets at 22 - if he is available all this year, he'll hit 100. His best performance was 5/17 as a three-pronged Stars spin attack (Zampa, Maxwell and Zahir Khan) bowled out Adelaide for 68 in BBL|10, but he's most famous for using his head.
10. Jackson Bird. Bird fills a niche in this squad - a new-ball bowler. He'll probably get two or three overs straight up and then not bowl again, given the presense of Hastings, Faulkner, Stoinis and the third international. Not that he's bad at all, though - 35 wickets in green at 23 is a very good return. Now with the Sixers, FYI.
11. Haris Rauf. The presence of Rauf means that both Malinga and Sandeep Lamichhane miss out on the squad entirely. Across parts of three BBL seasons, the former club cricketer has 30 wickets at a ludicrous average of 16 - batsmen simply cannot handle fast yorkers at the stumps, as we found out with Malinga internationally. Rauf's BBL-best figures are 5/27, but he's actually got something rarer than a five-for - a hat-trick, with his coming on the same day as Rashid Khan's.

Bench:
Nick Larkin - the half-Irishman has come along leaps and bounds in recent years in the short format. Averages 32, with a high of 83 against the Thunder in BBL|09.
Seb Gotch - just a backup keeper
Evan Gulbis - a surprisingly good lower-order batsman for the Stars for a few years. Has handy medium pace too - basically a B-grade Hilton Cartwright
David Hussey - the ex-captain is good enough to make this bench though. Averages 27 with the bat, and also provided twelve useful wickets with the ball.
Dan Worrall - known for swinging it early. Worrall's outstanding in bowler-friendly conditions, but struggles on flat decks.
Brody Couch - it's a bad sign for depth when an impending sophomore is already on the bench of a team's All-Time Squad. Luckily there's eight bowling options in the XI
Michael Beer - taking a wicket was almost impossible for Beer, but he always kept it quiet. This would be a much better spot for Sandeep, but I can't do that without getting rid of Rauf.

 

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Late night Scorchers team. The Scorchers have two super-cores, so picking one team will be tough.

1. Shaun Marsh. Let's be honest, everyone knew SOS would be here. He's an absolute icon of WA cricket whose impacts are among the biggest for one team. He didn't hit at a game changing rate - 130 S/R - but what he did was not get out often; he averaged 49.5 with Perth. 14 fifties in just 37 games, none were ever converted to tons, but he had some notable knocks - 99* in BBL|01, 96* in a BBL|08 game more associated with either a Callum Ferguson ton (that won it for the Thunder) or an awful racist banner in the Perth crowd, as well as being half of the largest opening partnership in BBL history with Maxy Klinger.
2. Colin Munro. Surprisingly, the other opener for the Scorchers isn't Klinger, whose stats have actually not held up at all in the modern game, or even Simon Katich for that matter. At least four imports were considered here, but Munro is the one who holds up best statistically (shoutouts to Herschelle Gibbs, Michael Carberry, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone). The Kiwi averaged 36 at 127 in his 29 games in Perth, with his best score being his sole century, 114* in a Gillespie Trophy annihilation last year. He won't be adding to his total for Perth this year... because we've got him
3. Mitchell Marsh. Marsh is one of very few players not to have moved between BBL|01 and BBL|12 (Aaron Finch, I think, is the only other). The Bison wouldn't have been three in years past (indeed, if I made this in 2020, there would likely be imports at 2 and 3), but in the last two years, he's turned from a well-balanced all-rounder to a world-class hitter who bowls well too. Averaging 39 at 135 with the bat, and having taken 25 wickets, Marsh is an outstanding cricketer who's an obvious part of this team.
4. Cameron Bancroft. Another surprise here for the casual - Bancroft's results with Perth have been better, in more games, than Josh Inglis'. I think some of that's down to the poor form Inglis had last year, but overall Bancroft is good enough to take the starting role with the gloves. Averaging 31 at a strike rate of 120, he can come in at three if an early wicket falls - particularly that of Marsh. His high score is 87* from opener, enough to take Perth to a win over Sydney last year.
5. Liam Livingstone. Make no mistake, I honestly feel sick about not having Laurie Evans at #5 after his performance last year. But also, I don't think I can put in someone to the Scorchers lineup after just one season, given how many great players this team has had. Livi plays here for England, but for Perth he's an opener, with a best score of 79, an average of 31 and a strike rate of 140.
6. Ashton Turner. The Scorchers' current captain if I remember correctly, Turner is in here as a finisher. It's what he does best - he only averages 25, but at a strike rate well north of 140. Turner's high score is 70, but he's come within one run of that two further times - that said, the most notable by far is the 70, an audacious 32-ball knock in BBL|07 only ended by an insane soccer runout by Dwayne Bravo.
7. Ashton Agar. Agar's inclusion does mean that Perth can only have three quicks (there's an obvious reason coming up), but he's the best fit for the #7 role, and has filled it since BBL|03. Averaging 20 runs at 120 late off in the innings, his more noteworthy contribution is his left-arm offspin, which has dismissed 51 BBL batsmen. While his average is high, his economy is low enough to compensate.
8. Jhye Richardson. Richardson debuted in BBL|06 as a fresh-faced 20-year-old, the latest in WA's pace pipeline, and was caned for 22 from 2 overs. Since that day, he's taken 73 BBL wickets at an average of 21. Incredibly, that's the worst resume of a paceman in this Perth team. Richardson was the top wicket-taker in BBL|10, but his best ever performance - 4/19 to blow away a Short-less Hurricanes - was actually the season prior.
9. A.J. Tye. Tye was a semi-pro player, working in the construction industry, when BBL|01 began. He got a contract off domestic one-day performances with the Thunder in BBL|03, but it was a return home in BBL|04 that saw his star explode. Tye has 116 wickets with Perth, the most for any bowler with one team, as well as not one but two BBL hattricks. He may be the best death bowler in BBL history, due to his diverse array of slower balls (and socks) including a rare knuckleball. His best figures are 5/23, including one of the hat-tricks. Of all bowlers with over 30 BBL games, he's second in bowling average to only Rashid Khan.
10. Jason Behrendorff. Behrendorff's struggled with injury throughout his career, but he's been an unusual weapon for Perth when healthy. He's a powerplay specialist, always bowling three in the first six, and sometimes even going four straight. He has 86 career wickets at an average under 21, including a career best haul of 4/22 against the Strikers in BBL|04 - this was the match where Adam Zampa hit a six to win with one wicket left. One of very few pro cricketers from Canberra.
11. George Bradley Hogg. Hogg's the greatest cult hero in BBL history, with absolutely nobody coming close. The thing that shocked me is that, as iconic as the tongue-waggle and Hoggy chants may have been, he actually still produced even in his mid-forties. 46 wickets at 22 is incredible for a spinner playing half his matches at the WACA, and it also beats the resume of every other Scorchers spinner - including Ashton Agar. Hogg has one four-wicket haul in the BBL - 4/29 against one of the really poor early Thunder teams. He also has a batting average of exactly two.

Bench:
Maxy Klinger - still good enough to be a bench bat despite my prior comments
Herschelle Gibbs - this could be Roy or Carberry too (and I further considered David Willey and BBL|04 final hero Yasir Arafat for this international slot); Scorchers opening imports have been good. Gibbs was a key part of the early Scorchers teams, opening with either Katich or Shaun Marsh.
Adam Voges - Perth are so deep that it'll be hard for their two-time premiership captain to get a game. How are they this good?
Josh Inglis - still good enough to be a bench bat despite my prior comments, part 2
Aaron Hardie - a breakout performer in BBL|11. Perth haven't needed many all-rounders because of Mitch Marsh, but Hardie looks like a slightly less elite heir apparent (as does Cam Green, who has slugging power but also abject BBL bowling stats)
Nathan Coulter-Nile - NCN is another whose injury proneness is at the max setting, but when he was playing, he was great with both bat and ball.
Matt Kelly - if you're wondering who's third behind Rashid and Tye for bowling average - it's this guy. Yet he's outside the Scorchers team...

 

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Up next, the other BBL superfranchise - the Sixers.

1. Josh Philippe. Shockingly, just three eligible Sixers average over 30. Philippe is pretty nuts, though. Since joining the Sixers in BBL|08 after a sole game the prior year in Perth, he's averaged 33 at a strike rate of 143, and been one of the BBL's premium hitters. His best score is 99* - as, you know, the Sixers are kinda cursed about tons - against the Stars last year, countering a Glenn Maxwell ton.
2. James Vince. Vince is also unfortunate not to have a BBL ton - with one run needed to beat the Scorchers in BBL|10, AJ Tye produced the worst ball he's ever bowled for a massive wide. Aside from that disappointment, though, Vince has been a premier international for the last few years. In 48 games over the last three seasons, he's averaged 31 at 132, and was in the top three run-scorers last year, in an opening partnership with Philippe.
3. Daniel Hughes. Hughes provides middle order stability after the hitting openers. His strike rate of 122 is a little low, but he averages just under 30, and generally has proved reliable when an opener loses an early wicket. His high score is 95, in a nuts game in Carrara where he (and some VERY loose bowling by Maxwell in the death) got Sydney home over a Stars team after Nick Pooran's wild 65.
4. Steve Smith. No need to discuss Smithy's international career, but his BBL one might be better than you remember. He has the highest average of all batsmen eligible - his 33 average is a tad higher than Philippe's - and while his SR is 'only' 130, that's still very quick. Also has six BBL wickets. His high score is only 66, surprisingly.
5. Moises Henriques. A Sixer since the BBL's inception, Henriques has been great with the bat and useful with the ball. He has a knack of standing up when nobody else does - multiple times last year, the Sixers lost several early wickets, followed by a Henriques fifty to right the ship. Averages 30 at 132 with the bat, and has 19 wickets (albeit somewhat ineffective in other categories) with the ball. The only Sixer to play 100 games for the club, and probably the best Portuguese cricketer ever.
6. Jordan Silk. Silk as a specialist #6 seems weird on paper; he averages 30, but at a S/R of just 125. However. Anyone who claims he doesn't deserve a spot in the XI has never watched him field. Silk is known for his many stunning fielding efforts. Not negative value with the stick either; his best knock was 78 off 49 to almost finish a game for Sydney.
7. Tom Curran. A cult hero in Sydney for both his batting and bowling performances, Curran is an easy decision to make this team as an international. His hitting power was surprisingly high - averaging 23 at 145, he's the best tail hitter in Sixers history. He also has 47 wickets at 19 in his 32 BBL games. Curran's bests are 4/22 and 62.
8. Ben Dwarshuis. One of two Sixers bowlers with over 100 wickets, Dwarsh has 102 at 23 across his 83 games. Dwarshuis has one five-wicket haul among that, 5/26 to blow away a mediocre Renegades side in BBL|09. Also a solid power hitter, averaging 18 at a strike rate of 134; both of those were helped by an insane 66 off 28 that took the Sixers from 7/55 to 141 all out against the Scorchers at Marvel last year. Did once hold the record for least economical BBL spell - in the Stoinis 147 game.
9. Sean Abbott. The power of math dictates that Abbott - averaging 12 at 110 - bats below Dwarshuis, despite that not being the case IRL. But he's a better bowler - 115 wickets at 19 is an incredible haul across his ten seasons. Abbott can leak runs - he was the bowler for the Travis Head NYE century - but he also takes bags of wickets, having led the BBL in wickets taken twice. Has one BBL five-wicket haul - funnily enough, exactly one year after his NYE nightmare, he took 5/16 (including Head) for a career day.
10. Steve O'Keefe. I could only include two of Lyon, SOK and Brett Lee. Lyon may have beaten SOK to the spinner's job had he played less Tests, but the Sixers icon has to take this role. He has 78 BBL wickets at an incredibly good economy rate and solid average (6.7, 23). No five-fors for him, but he does have a 4/14, a typically deadly spell for him. Often bowls two overs in the Powerplay, where he is immensely hard to hit. Does have a risk of knee injuries.
11. Brett Lee. Lyon is better statistically, but I felt like Lee brings something so different to the table that I had to include him. Pure pace bowlers are often expensive, but Lee kept his economy only just over 7. That did result in less wickets being taken than you might expect, but he was at the centre of so many memorable BBL moments - as well as being the bowler for The Catch by Silk, he was the bowler who broke Brendon McCullum's nose two overs into the BBL's first ever game, and also the one who took two wickets to nearly improbably win BBL|04 for the Sixers.

Bench:
Nic Maddinson - Maddinson was never particularly consistent, but he at least provided power hitting before his Melbourne move (although it's likely a broken arm was more at fault than the Stars).
Brad Haddin - Haddin wasn't quite the superstar he was with the Test team at BBL level, but provided some handy knocks - 76 in the first ever BBL game, and 54 in that NYE game, come to mind.
Hayden Kerr - a breakout performer of BBL|11 with bat and ball, Kerr has 23 BBL wickets at just 16, as well as a batting average of 22 at 131 including a 98* in a finals game last year.
Carlos Brathwaite - good hitter, good bowler, good dancer - what's not to like? Unless you're Ben Stokes
Nathan Lyon - no question as to whether Lyon deserves a spot on the bench. He's a very harsh omission from the main team, given his average of under 20.
Mitch Starc - Starc hasn't played BBL since BBL|03 for conditioning reasons, but his pure wicket taking ability in the first three - 20 poles at 14, including this ball to Sam Whiteman.
:Aus: Josh Hazlewood - Hazlewood played up until BBL|09 for the Sixers - he hasn't had Starc's fitness issues - although usually only once or twice a year. 26 wickets at 21, though, is a very good return for such a limited amount of work.

 

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Final team up now! The Thunder, perennial bottom-feeders, actually have a stacked team for their results.

1. Usman Khawaja. When everyone saw the Thunder's first list, they gravitated to David Warner as the franchise superstar. Warner averages 152 with the Thunder, but in just two games; instead, Khawaja has turned into the lime green icon. He averages 34 at 130 at Spotless, with two tons - the highest 109*. Much to the chagrin of Thunder fans, he departed for the Heat this offseason - and much to the chagrin of me, he's likely to spend most of it in the Test team.
2. Alex Hales. The Thunder have had Warner, Chris Gayle and Shahid Afridi open for them in the early days, but Hales and Khawaja are comfortably their best ever partnership. Hales is an elite international, averaging 37 at a strike rate of 152. Hales' sole BBL ton was 110 off 55 deliveries when the Thunder set the BBL team score record in a BBL|10 Sydney Smash (that said, that record no longer stands).
3. Shane Watson. Watto is actually probably the worst of the top six batsmen - averaging 27 with the Thunder, albeit at a SR of 133 - but he provides value both with the ball, where he took 19 wickets at 27 as a sixth option, as well as in terms of his leadership. Watson has one BBL ton, in the infamous 'Power Outage' game that sparked the Heat-Thunder rivalry.
4. Mike Hussey. An Aussie ODI legend, he's also a Thunder immortal as he captained the team to a title in BBL|05. Ignoring Warner, Hussey has the highest batting average in Thunder history - 39, with a great strike rate of 134 to boot. His highest score is 96 in a big stand against the Heat with Jacques Kallis, although his average is high due to his high rate of consistency - just over 30% of Hussey's Thunder knocks were fifties.
5. Callum Ferguson. The fourth Thunder captain in the first five, Ferguson never got going with Adelaide or the Renegades due to a series of devastating knee injuries. But with the Thunder (and possibly due to less FC workload), he's blossomed. Averaging the slightest tick above 30, his biggest innings was quite uncharacteristic - a brilliant 113* off 52 balls to mow down the Scorchers in Perth. Despite only playing in four seasons with the Thunder (7-10), he's fifth in all-time appearances for the club.
6. Sam Billings. I feel bad about omitting Jacques Kallis, but his bowling stats were much worse than Watson's, and batting worse than anyone else I could drop for a keeper. His removal also allows that keeper to be the one who's been the best for Sydney, by far. Another new Heat recruit (we're finally striking back in the player recruitment war), he averages 34 at a strike rate just under 150 - that rate of acceleration is a theme from here.
7. Daniel Sams. Sams was an academy product of the Sixers, who played him for six matches in BBL|07 and then failed to resign him. Their loss; Sams has been one of the tournament's best all-rounders since his departure. His batting is very inconsistent, but when he hits, he goes big - he has a strike rate of 150 and a top score of 98* in a traditional destruction of the Renegades last year. With the ball, Sams has been a wrecking machine - 75 wickets in just 56 games with a best of 4/33 has him profiling like Sean Abbott in terms of his wicket-taking ability.
8. Chris Green. Green isn't actually a particularly great wicket-taker; sure, he has 52, but they're at an average of over 30 apiece. What Green does well is bat (averaging 15 at 135 is great for an #8), bowl economically (his economy is a tick above 7) and lead (although that may be surplus to requirements in this particularly Thunder XI). Green has one BBL fifty - in the most recent Sydney Smash - as well as one four-wicket haul.
9. Chris Morris. Import retention has been an issue for the Thunder - many of their imports has played one good year and then moved on. Morris is one, and he only finds himself in this team because of a second issue - lack of reliable death bowling. The big South African slugged at a S/R of 150 and took 22 wickets at 19 in his one year in green.
10. Gurinder Sandhu. Only Green and Khawaja have more Thunder games than Sandhu, and he'll pass the former of those this year, certainly. The big man actually spent a couple years out of Sydney's team - playing for the Sixers for a short while in the meantime - but returned in BBL|11 and has proved effective in both stints. He has 59 wickets at 26 over his Spotless career, but his best bowling - 4/22 against the Scorchers - actually came last year.
11. Tanveer Sangha. Since Chris Green's debut with the team, the Thunder have usually used two spinners - Green as a more containing option, with another more aggressive spinner (usually a leggie) afforded by their use of several all-rounders. Sangha, the young Aussie, only debuted in BBL|10 but already looks the best of them by a way. In just 27 games, he has 37 wickets at an average of 17.5 - only Rashid Khan's is lower for players with over 20 games. His best is 4/14 in BBL|10 to bowl the Renegades out for 80... one of two times the Thunder have done exactly that in the last two years.

Bench:
Aiden Blizzard - aside from their imports and Khawaja, the Thunder top order options are a bit thin. Blizzard is on the bench to provide a level of backup.
Jay Lenton - this is probably the most surprising thing I've found in doing this... Jay Lenton has better batting stats than breakout star Mat Gilkes.
Arjun Nair - ignoring the controversy about his bowling action, Nair's a great true all-rounder.
Jason Sangha - Sangha's slow strike rate kept him out of the starting lineup, but there's obvious value in a guy averaging 36 at BBL level. He also bowls useful offspin.
Fawad Ahmed - Fuzzy gets the rough end of Sangha's breakout here by being forced to the bench. He was still very good with them, though, taking 40 wickets at 25.
Clint McKay - a couple Thunder guys didn't have the long-term track record to make the first team, but were still good enough over a couple seasons to be on the bench. McKay is one...
Dirk Nannes - and former Dutch international Nannes is the other. Could replace Morris as the closer if necessary.

 

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ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT


Also 16 (144) is diabolical work

 

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[Slowcoach]

Who cares.

 

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I hope Hilton Cartwright is okay. Seemed like an innocuous dive live, but he may have sustained some pretty serious injuries from it

 

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DUDE. Duckniel Sams has left the building