To the delight of cricket fans across the globe, the tenth edition of the Caribbean Premier League is going to start after a few days. The tournament, which spans nearly a month, will see six top-class teams battling it out for the lucrative trophy.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots emerged as the champions last season, defeating St Lucia Kings by three wickets in the all-important final. So, as we gear up for the mega event, let's analyse what the strengths of the defending champions are and what challenges they might face in the course of the tournament.
Strengths
Dynamic top three
Lewis starred for LSG in IPL 2022 [PC: Twitter]
The Patriots have two dynamic batters Evin Lewis and Andre Fletcher at the top, who have recorded outstanding numbers in the tournament's history. Both are fantastic pace hitters, and Lewis can pretty well compliment Fletcher's incompetency against leg spinners. Further, they will likely have Dewald Brevis at number three, who is immensely good against both pace and spin. So, their top three are definitely one of their biggest strengths.
A host of all-rounders
Dwayne Bravo will lead the Patriots
Having able all-rounders in the setup completes a T20 team. And fortunately, the Patriots have three exceptional all-rounders in Dwayne Bravo, Dwaine Pretorius and Wanindu Hasaranga. There's also Dominic Drakes, who can hit a long ball coming down the order apart from troubling the batters with his left-arm angle. These all-rounders not only increase their batting depth, but also provide them with an ample number of bowling options.
Weakness
Death Bowling
Patriots' premier death bowler Dwayne Bravo has an ordinary economy of 9.31 in the slog overs since 2021. Their other first-choice seamers, Dominic Drakes, Sheldon Cottrell and Dwaine Pretorius have a collective economy of 10.84 in the death overs in the last two years. Considering these abysmal numbers, I believe the death bowling is going to be an issue for the defending champions.
Opportunity
Izharulhaq Naveed
Izharulhaq Naveed in action [PC: Twitter]
The young leg spinner from Afghanistan rose to prominence recently, scalping ten wickets from six games in the U-19 World Cup conducted earlier this year. He was also among a few net bowlers who grabbed eyeballs during the IPL 2022. As the Patriots don't have any wrist spin resources apart from Hasaranga, we might see Izharulhaq Naveed getting numerous chances in the tournament.
Threat
Lack of high-pace hit-the-deck seamer
Andre Russell [PC: Twitter]
The Patriots lack an express fast bowler in their lineup. The likes of Bravo, Pretorius or even Cottrell generally operate in the 130s. This kind of a pace attack is bound to struggle against incredible pace hitters like Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Rovman Powell etc.
 "Debashis Sarangi")
