BBL: Sydney Thunder Season Preview
The Thunder have plenty of big names in their squad!
Sydney Thunder Season Preview
Finished last year: 6th
Predicted finish: 6th
Title odds: $10 (multiple bookies)
Squad: Shane Watson (c), Fawad Ahmed, Jos Buttler (England) Pat Cummins, Anton Devcich (New Zealand)*, Callum Ferguson, Ryan Gibson, Chris Green, Liam Hatcher, Chris Jordan (England)*, Usman Khawaja, Jay Lenton, Nathan McAndrew, Arjun Nair, Kurtis Patterson, Sam Rainbird, Joe Root (England), Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha
* Replacing Buttler and Root
The strength of this squad looks very good on paper, but with Root and Buttler only available for the first half of the season and Khawaja & Cummins likely to miss most of the tournament on national duty they might struggle a bit.
Their spin bowling stocks are pretty solid with Ahmed and Green at the helm, with the off-spinning all-rounder in Nair sitting in the wings.
Shane Watson will be the mainstay in the top-order as he has retired from international cricket. His pre-tournament form has been impressive in the Mike Hussey Trophy (BBL preseason tournament) and Sydney grade cricket and should still be a force in the competition.
Expect the Thunder to start the tournament well with all their big-guns firing, but fade out once their star international recruits return home.
Best XI: Buttler (WK), Watson, Root, Khawaja, Patterson, Ferguson, Cummins, Sams, Green, Sandhu, Ahmed