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BBL 2020 Team Preview: Men from Adelaide have the force to strike hard this time

Third-place finishers in the group table last season, the men from Adelaide have readied their arsenal to strike at the right moment and throughout the tournament to make sure they reach their second-ever BBL final in the history of the league. The first and only time they did, was in 2017-18, where they beat Hobart Hurricanes to claim the silverware. 

The extra motivation

Since then it has been difficult for the team to make it to the final two in the past two years. This time around, the team would go in with extra motivation, given the fact that it was the only among the eight teams to be away from their home venue due to covid. Being away as a group for the past month has brought them closer and given them a target to prove that even without the odds in their favour, they are never afraid to ride the high tide. 

Coach Gillespie believes that his boys have put in a lot of effort at their base in Coff’s Harbour in the New South Wales and was grateful for the authorities to have provided the team world-class facilities. 

"I have to say the local council, the stadium management and grounds staff in Coffs Harbour deserve all the credit. The facilities we had – at short notice – have been world-class and they all bent over backwards to help. I can't thank them enough,” he said. 

The foreign signings

Adelaide are the only team who wouldn’t have much problem with their foreign stars as most of them would be available throughout the tournament, barring the fact that Rashid Khan might be away for a week or so if the Afghanistan vs Ireland series goes as planned. 

Rashid Khan’s worldwide reputation of winning matches doesn’t need any backing up from the stats. But if one indeed wanted to know, then in 40 matches at the BBL over the years, the Afghan has picked up 56 wickets with his economy remaining below seven at all the times. Overall in 237 T20 games, the 22-year-old has picked up 327 scalps. 

Phil Salt and Danny Brigs, both Englishmen were drafted in by Gillespie for their outstanding performances in the Vitality Blast. While Salt has previously played with the Strikers, it would be a first time for Briggs, the highest wicket-taker in England domestic circuit.    

Phil Salt was one of the leading run-scorers for Strikers last year with 361 runs from 15 innings. Even in the Vitality Blast, he has to his credit more than 200 runs at a decent strike rate. Overall, he has 1709 runs in 73 T20 games at a strike rate of more than 150, which could be crucial for the Strikers considering that his partner, Jake Weatherald is more of an innings builder with a strike rate of less than 130. 

Briggs, another one of Gillespies Sussex recruits is is a utility player who can bowl at any time in the innings. The vastly experienced 29-year-old has 186 T20 wickets in his kitty in 168 games, meaning that he gives at least one wicket in each game. 

Speaking about Briggs’ potential, Gillespie who had been at Sussex himself said, “Danny is the highest wicket-taker in the history of the T20 Blast in the UK, which has been running since 2003. He's a vastly experienced left-arm spinner, he's a very adaptable player. He can bowl in every phase of the game, so he gives us flexibility and options.”

Adelaide Strikers Squad

Wes Agar, Alex Carey, Harry Conway, Travis Head (c), Spencer Johnson, Michael Neser, Harry Nielsen, Liam O'Connor, Matthew Renshaw, Liam Scott, Matt Short, Peter Siddle, Cameron Valente, Jake Weatherald, Jon Wells, Daniel Worrall.

Overseas Players: Danny Briggs (England), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Phil Salt (England)

Coach: Jason Gillespie

Assistant Coach: Cameron White

Strikers would bank on experience 

Adelaide is one of the most experienced sides this year in the tournament. It is not by the age of the players, rather by the number of games that they have played. For e.g. Phil Slat, at just 24, has an experience of 73 high quality T20 games. Or for that matter, Rashid Khan at 22 more than 300 wickets in his kitty. 

It is this experience that needs to be balanced and utilised well by the Strikers management. The likes Peter Siddle, joint highest wicket-taker (19 wickets in 15 games) last season, all-rounder Michael Nesser (as and when available), skipper Travis Head, Rashid Khan, Alex Carey and Matt Renshaw would have come to good to give the Strikers all the chance in the world to make it to their second finals appearance. 

However, one person that all the Strikers fans and team would be looking to come good would be the 32-year-old Jonathan Wells. The guy had smokes all the bowlers out of the park last year scoring 478 runs in 14 innings at an unbelievable average of 68.28 and at a healthy strike rate of 135. 

However, Gillespie believes that the new signing Renshaw and Daniel Worrall would be the important dots to connect the Strikers to the finals. “Matt came down from Brisbane to Coffs to get around our boys after a few hits in Premier Cricket. He's a very fine player and that's the reason we went hard to recruit him. He's a very flexible batter with a lot of upsides and he can also bowl some handy slower deliveries too.”

Head must 'Carey' it through

It would be between the two most experienced and acclaimed Aussie Superstars in the form of Travis Head (captain) and Alex Carey (who would lead in Head’s absence due to international duties) to take the charge of a unit brimming of talent and make the most of all that talent. Carey, 29,  has just recently signed a four year deal with the strikers, meaning that the team looks at him as their future leader. 

With Head away, most probably for the first eight rounds, Carey, who was Strikers’ second-highest run-scorer last year with 391 runs at an average of 35.54, must take the lead and prove to the Australian selectors that he should be the number one choice going to India for the next year’s T20 World Cup. Carey would not get a better chance than this to do that. 

Head, when he will return, will have gas hands as he would look to recreate the 2017-18 season all over again in which he scored 374 runs in just 9 innings (he would get 7-8 innings minimum this year too) to take the team through.  Therefore it would be between the two experienced left-handers Head and Carey to carry the team in such a way that it heads to the final straightaway. 

Possible Best XI for the first game: 

Jake Weatherald, Phil Salt, Matt Short, Matt Renshaw (c), Jon Wells, Harry Nielsen (wk), Rashid Khan, Peter Siddle, Wes Agar, Danny Briggs, Daniel Worrall

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All were at stake for the hosts as the debutant Sams was tasked to defend 13 runs in the last over against Pandya and Iyer and as it turned out the task was too difficult to achieve against the firepower of Pandya. Earlier in the day, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to chase at the SCG and his eyes must have been on the short boundary on one side of the wicket. The stand-in captain Wade promoted himself at the top of the order with Aaron Finch missing due to injury and he put on a show right from the start. He was particularly severe of any short balls and the Indian new ball bowlers bowled plenty of them. Kohli threw a bait on the left-handed openers, D’Arcy Short and the captain Wade to go across the line against Washington Sundar to the short boundary on the leg side. Wade took the bait and won the game within the game as Australia were off to a rollicking start at 23/0 off the first two overs. The carnage went on for the tourists as wade was not giving up his shots and was taking calculated risks. Just when the hosts appeared to be running away with the game, Natarajan induced a false shot from Short and Iyer was sharp at the mid-wicket fence to snaffle the catch and India were relieved to see the separation of the opening pair. India’s dismal performances in the field did not stop in this match as well as in the very next over of the fall of Short, Wade was dropped by Pandya who has dropped quite a few more than his reputation as a fielder would be able to digest. Wade was severe on the off spinner Sundar and took him for 31 runs off his three overs but a fair share of blame for his bad figure would go to Kohli as well as he dropped Wade when he induced a leading edge off the left-hander’s bat. But, Kohli was aware of the happenings around him and was quick to throw the ball after dropping the catch for Rahul to whipp off the bails before Wade could come back to the crease. Glenn Maxwell started in his usual style and took no time to settle before he could unleash his blistering shots. He started with a big six off Chahal over the long-off boundary but Shardul Tahkur got the better of him with balls away from his range on the off side. Steve Smith looked frustrated in the middle as he could not get going against disciplined Indian bowlers . He was given a breather by Moises Henriqyes who once again promised big with the bat but perished in the process of going for big runs. Out of all the bowlers in the Indian camp, Natarajan was the pick of the bowlers and went for only five runs per over and also took two big wickets of Short and Henriques, just when they were starting to look threatening for the visitors. Yuzvendra Chahal had a real off day in the field after a man of the match performance in the last game. The series win in the T20 is the second consecutive series win in Australia for the Virat Kohli-led team in the shortest form of the game. After showing not so impressive run of form in the first two ODIs of the series, the men in blue have bounced back strongly and will go into the Test series with high confidence.