Big Bash Overseas Draft Summary

Some teams better at roster construction than others

Yesterday saw the overseas draft of the Big Bash League with teams selecting several overseas players to go with their domestic list. Each team picked one overseas player in advance as a pre-signing but the question surrounding those players was where they’d fit in a draft bracket, and how that would affect their other draft picks.

Here’s how the draft ended up for each team (credit to @BBL on X)

The numbers and colours next to each player’s name represent their draft pick (even though 24 players were drafted, there were 32 slots with teams passing on a draft slot when they decided to), so for example Ben Duckett was pick 1 and Jafer Chohan was pick 32 (bronze).

Player availability is complex, so I won’t go into that in much detail. Saying that, some of the picks from teams were pretty strange. In my view, Hobart Hurricanes, Adelaide Strikers, Brisbane Heat and Perth Scorchers (the four teams at the bottom of the above graphic) were teams who struggled with their selections, and it’s tough to even give them much leeway for having later draft selections in the first round - I’ll explain why in the team-by-team analysis.

Onto that…

Melbourne Stars - nailed the draft. They really needed a left-handed spin hitter who can keep (Duckett, who is playing at a really high level, definitely ticks all the boxes there), while Usama Mir solves their spin and batting depth issues as well, with the ability to turn the ball away from the right-hander to complement Glenn Maxwell’s off-spin.

Their pace bowling is a bit ‘samey’, and I still have some concerns about their death bowling, but I think this was a pretty positive draft for Stars. They couldn’t cover all their gaps, but they did what they could.

Potential XI

Rogers, Harper, Duckett, Maxwell, Stoinis, Webster/Cartwright (I can’t play them both in the same XI given their batting dynamics), Curran, Usama Mir, Paris, Steketee, Boland

Sydney Sixers - two overseas spinners to add to Todd Murphy highlights the potential to go spin-heavy, while James Vince is a proven quantity in franchise T20 and will need to do some heavy-lifting in an uninspiring batting group (assuming Steve Smith isn’t available that much).

It’s fascinating to see them pick up the talented leg spinner at Yorkshire, Jafer Chohan, who went undrafted in The Hundred recently. It’s also a great story for SACA whose superb work getting players into professional cricket puts a lot of English counties to shame.

Sixers do have decent batting depth though with Hosein potentially at number 10. Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis and (if fit again) Hayden Kerr represent a decent domestic pace bowling group, but as with other teams (see below) one or two injuries could cause them problem.

Potential XI

Vince, Hughes, Smith, Philippe, Henriques, Silk, Abbott, Kerr, Dwarshuis, Hosein, Chohan

Melbourne Renegades - went very batter-heavy with their three picks. They moved in Laurie Evans from Scorchers, who couldn’t keep him, and picked up the ultra-talented Jacob Bethell who I work with at Birmingham Phoenix. Bethell can also bowl competent left-arm spin and is one of the best fielders in England, so Renegades have managed to recruit a player with their second pick who can influence matches with bat, ball and in the field.

They needed a keeper, so picked Tim Seifert pre-draft to complete the trio of batters. It’s hardly a show of faith in their domestic batting group, but with Jake Fraser-McGurk and Josh Brown, plus young talents Harry Dixon and Mackenzie Harvey, their batting looks strong. Opening the batting, Fraser-McGurk and Brown are either going to get out quickly or take teams apart in the Powerplay, and a lot of Renegades chances will depend on the duo.

Their pace bowling lacks a bit of depth - one or two injuries and they’d have problems - but they look in better shape than in the last few seasons, which have been a struggle.

Potential XI

Fraser-McGurk, Brown, Evans, Wells, Seifert, Bethell, Sutherland, Rogers, O’Neill, Richardson, Zampa

Nathan Lyon when available will come into their line-up as well.

Sydney Thunder - keeper/batter Billings, pacer Ferguson and finisher Rutherford should all add value for their respective skillsets, with Billings a big pick-up from Brisbane Heat, offering keeping ability and leadership quality.

Ferguson adds to a pace bowling group with Wes Agar, Nathan McAndrew and, if fit, Daniel Sams who picked up a long-term injury in the T20 Blast in England. I’m expecting their spin to be strong with Chris Green and the high potential Tanveer Sangha locking up eight overs between them with ease.

A couple of domestic batters don’t inspire me. Cameron Bancroft has an anchor dynamic, while Nic Maddinson has underwhelmed for a number of years - a surprising pick-up from Renegades. The veteran David Warner looks to be in decline but might eke out another decent season. If their top three are as predicted below, they’re going to need 4-8 to play catch-up superbly if Thunder are to score above-average totals this season.

Potential XI

Warner, Bancroft, Maddinson, Billings, Davies, Rutherford, Sams, Green, Agar, T Sangha, Ferguson

Hobart Hurricanes - their overseas recruitment continues to puzzle me, with the likes of Corey Anderson and Asif Ali predictably underwhelming in previous seasons, and Shai Hope and Rishad Hossain potentially continuing that theme. They have underperformed as a team in recent years and I do consider this a big part of their problems.

Clearly Ricky Ponting sees more in Hope (their first pick) than others, including me, and while Hossain has upside and overseas spinners do often thrive in the BBL, they also have Peter Hatzoglou and Paddy Dooley as frontline spinners plus other spin options from their batting group.

Nathan Ellis and Chris Jordan should have the death overs locked, with Riley Meredith also a strong pace option, but I’d probably have looked to pick up another batter over Hossain, with a lot being asked of Hurricanes’ domestic batters - several who are veterans or not in great form currently. They could potentially have a long tail as well with Jordan at seven and Ellis at eight.

Potential XI

Wade, McDermott, Wright, Hope, David, Chaudhary, Jordan, Ellis, Hatzoglou, Hossain, Meredith

Adelaide Strikers - For me, the team with the worst draft performance. Ollie Pope hasn’t impressed in English domestic T20/100 for several years now, and was a very curious pre-draft signing, while both Jamie Overton and Fabian Allen could potentially have very low match involvement. Overton has been playing as a hitter in recent months due to an injury preventing him from bowling while I highlighted Allen’s lack of match involvement recently too.

Batting-wise, Matt Short will need to have a great season in order for Strikers to perform well, while they are pinning hopes on both Chris Lynn and D’Arcy Short to recapture their former strengths, which on the surface looks to be relatively unlikely. Alex Ross, the player with arguably the best agent in cricket, has been brought in from Thunder and this also looks to be another uninspiring piece of recruitment. At least they appear to have moved on from Harry Nielsen and Thomas Kelly.

Topping things off, the departures of Wes Agar and David Payne leaves a big hole in their pace bowling group which they haven’t addressed. It could be a challenging season for new head coach Tim Paine in his first role.

Potential XI

M Short, D Short, Lynn, Carey, Pope, Overton, Allen, Bazley, Thornton, Boyce, Pope

Brisbane Heat - they’ve managed to keep hold of two of their three overseas players from last year (Colin Munro and Paul Walter) although Munro is now 37 and a two-year deal for him on a high salary looks pretty risky.

Replacing Sam Billings is Tom Alsop, which is relatively like-for-like, although Alsop isn’t a frontline keeper. They might need to play Jimmy Peirson due to that. He’s improved significantly for Sussex in T20, previously not having featured prominently for his old county Hampshire, and broke into the Trent Rockets team towards the end of The Hundred.

It will be Alsop’s first major overseas T20 contract, and it will be fascinating to see if he can avoid the commonplace issue for first-season English batters in the Big Bash where they often struggle to access boundaries with anything like the frequency that they do in England.

If fully fit and available, there won’t be many better pacers in the league than Xavier Bartlett and Spencer Johnson, while Michael Neser also adds to that skillset. I’m also excited to see how Callum Vidler performs after impressing for Australia Under-19s.

However, their spin group looks a bit uninspiring to me, and their batting looks pretty low-tempo, particularly after the departure of Josh Brown to Renegades. Their pacers will need to be outstanding for Heat to have a good season.

Potential XI

Khawaja, Munro, Labuschagne, Renshaw, Alsop, Walter, Neser, Bartlett, Johnson, Swepson, Kuhnemann

Perth Scorchers - historically one of the stronger BBL franchises, with a strong domestic bowling group being their core focus. This will again be their plan, having recruited three batters in the overseas draft - Finn Allen and the Lancashire duo of Matty Hurst and Keaton Jennings.

The English pairing are interesting selections, with Hurst being a keeper/batter of very high potential, making a strong breakthrough in the Blast and Hundred this summer, but there are areas where I feel he needs to evolve - he’s cautious against spin turning away from him, and as his career develops will need to be stronger off-side, through covers and backward point. If he can address those, it will be fascinating to see his career trajectory. Jennings was never renowned as a T20 player in England until lately, when he was picked up as a replacement player at London Spirit in this year’s Hundred (the first time he was drafted in the tournament).

However, with Josh Inglis, Mitch Marsh, Aaron Hardie and Ashton Turner offering strong domestic batting, there’s less reliance on the overseas players to do the heavy-lifting than for some other teams. They might not all play initially, and even Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson, who would both get into most other teams, might not be able to get into the team either unless they have players missing. I’m not sure Scorchers had a fantastic draft but they still look like one of the stronger sides ahead of the tournament.

Potential XI

Allen, Jennings, Marsh, Inglis, Hardie, Turner, Connolly, Agar, Richardson, Behrendorff, Morris

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