Dec 5, 2021
BBL preview - Brisbane Heat
Technically finished third last season, which could be considered a success based on how their previous seasons gone. In the three seasons prior to last, they’d failed reach the knockout rounds and I believe they were the only side to manage that feat.
Stating they finished third is probably quite generous, considering there were three teams that were clearly stronger than the rest last season and Brisbane Heat weren’t one of those. They finished fourth in the group stage, thanks to some better performances in the second half of last season and managed to win two knockout games, before eventually losing to Perth Scorchers in the ‘challenger’ fixture.
After a couple of seasons in charge, Darren Lehmann has stepped down as head coach, with Wade Seccombe replacing him. Long-term captain - Chris Lynn has also stepped down from his role, crucially though, he has remained with the Heat as a player. Jimmy Peirson will take over as captain. These are two changes that were probably needed, given some of the poor performances they’ve put in during recent seasons.
Squad:
Overseas players: Ben Duckett, Tom Abell and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
You could say it’s typical season of overseas signings from Brisbane Heat, focusing on batting and arguably leaving them looking short from a bowling point of view, which has always been their weak point.
While this is probably true, at least their recruitment seems to have been done with a specific purpose this time around and they haven’t just signed big name players. Duckett and Abell are two excellent players of spin, which is an area they’ve been weak in during previous seasons and this was the case last season. It’ll also go some way to countering the weaknesses some of their local players (Lynn, Heazlett & Peirson) have against spin.
It could be argued that they’ve taken a slight risk signing two players with limited t20 experience outside of England, however, I don’t really agree with that train of thought and these two players have done all they can to impress at the current level they’ve been playing at.
Availability issues:
- Tom Abell - In the England Lions squad, will miss the first few matches.
- Mark Sketee - In the Australia ‘A’ squad, will miss the first few matches.
- Marnus Labuschagne - In the Ashes squad, will likely miss the majority of the tournament.
- Mitch Swepson - In the Ashes squad, will miss at least the first five matches of the tournament.
- Michael Neser - In the Ashes squad, will miss at least the first five matches of the tournament.
Changes from the squad last season:
In - Hugo Burdon, Michael Neser, Cameron Gannon, Liam Guthrie, Nathan McSweeney and Will Prestwidge.
Out - Ben Laughlin, Morne Morkel, Jack Wood, Simon Milenko, Matthew Willans and Joe Burns.
There haven’t been any major losses or incomings for the Heat. Michael Neser would probably play every game if he was available but that’s unlikely to be the case, although he may play a few games towards the back end of the tournament. Joe Burns is probably the most significant departure but he’s never really convinced in t20’s and only scored 180 runs in 11 innings last season.
Possible XI:
With plenty of players missing, their team doesn’t look the strongest for the opening matches. However, there are plenty of exciting players to keep an eye on. The top four should be fun to watch, with an aggressive opening partnership and a quality player of spin (Duckett) added to the mix, Sam Heazlett also finished last season strongly and will be looking to build on that. He has a fantastic list A record, so there’s obvious potential that hasn’t yet been untapped in t20's.
Jack Wildermuth is a pace bowling all-rounder and is capable of some big hits lower down the order. Mujeeb is Mujeeb, an excellent t20 spinner and Xavier Bartlett impressed in his debut campaign last season.
In the screenshot I posted above, the team on the right is more of a realistic full strength XI, rather than what they’d actually look like at full strength. This would probably be an actual full strength XI:
This team actually looks fairly strong, if they can reach the knockout phase, we might actually get to see it in action.
Team strengths
- Top order batting - If they plant to their potential, Heat have a strong top four/five, with plenty of versatility due their overseas signings this season. Chris Lynn is obviously the star name and will be essential to any success they have, with better players of spin around him he could be a serious danger this year.’
- Upgraded players of spin - Ben Duckett & Tom Abell are both high quality players of spin, they don’t just score quickly, they’re also reliable and maintain a high average. They can score in unusual area’s and both play the reverse sweep particularly well, the LH/RH combination will also cause problems for opposition teams, as well as their ability to rotate strike and score boundaries.
- Spin attack/depth - Mujeeb and Kuhnemann is a decent spin attack, considering they’re missing Swepson. Kuhnemann is a solid player and has probably deserved more opportunities than he’s received in recent seasons and comes into the tournament off the back of good performances in other formats. Mujeeb had an excellent t20 WC and looked more threatening than he has in a while from a wicket taking perspective.
Team Weaknesses
- Death overs bowling - This seems to be a problem for Brisbane Heat every season and every year they fail to address it. It looks to be no different this time around and after going for 10.62 rpo at the death last season, they look even weaker this time around. Mark Steketee was their most commonly used bowler in this phase last season and he won’t be available for the first few matches either.
- Lower order hitting - Middle/lower order options of Peirson, Cooper, Bazley and Wildermuth don’t exactly inspire confidence in comparison to what some teams have available to them . Wildermuth is capable but you don’t want to be relying one a bowling all-rounder to do a job, they’re lacking a specialist in this area.
Team stats sheet:
Player notes
Chris Lynn - One of the most consistent BBL performers, should be even better this season with better team building around him. Excels against pace and only Alex Hales scores at a faster rate in the first four overs. Hopefully they don’t mess around with his batting position like they have in recent seasons.
Max Bryant - Has definitely lacked consistency in his t20 career so far but his qualities are obvious. A hard-hitting opener with a good boundary percentage, aggressive against pace and spin, struggles outside of powerplay’s and has a poor record against left arm pace.
Ben Duckett - Highest boundary percentage against spin of any player since the start of 2020. Especially strong against the ball turning in, striking at 173 with a boundary percentage of 26% since the start of 2020. Doesn’t have a brilliant record against pace and can’t generate much power down the ground. Should definitely be used at three in my opinion.
Sam Heazlett - There can’t be many players that have such a vast difference between their List A and T20 records:
Even if List A matches are generally played in favourable conditions in Australia, often at outer grounds with smaller boundaries, it’s still a bizarrely big contrast between his records in the two formats. In the past two season’s he has shown glimpses of better performances but hasn’t done it consistently enough. Hasn’t nailed down a position in the side and has floated between opening and batting at four for the most part. I expect he’ll be in the middle order this season.
Tom Abell - Personally I’m a huge fan of this signing, I love watching Tom Abell bat and he makes everything he does look so easy. I guess you could describe him as a modern day anchor with no obvious weaknesses in his game; striking at 145+ against spin and pace, as well as averaging 37 against both. His stats are slightly inflated through playing his home matches at Taunton so it’ll be interesting to see if he can adapt his game to bigger grounds in Australia. He’s a good multi-format player so I expect he’ll be able to. Also an excellent strike rotator.
Jimmy Peirson - Not fully convinced by this appointment as captain but I guess if it wasn’t Lynn, they were scraping the barrel for local options as skipper. Peirson has an average record for the position he bats, with a poor boundary percentage of 11.5% since the start of 2018. His stats against pace are okay but he’s basically allergic to scoring boundaries against spin, hitting only five of the 208 deliveries against spin for boundaries, which is an extraordinarily low amount. Should bat at 6/7.
Tom Cooper - His stats are a bit better than I thought and his death overs strike rate of 167 isn’t awful either. Another player that struggles against spin and Cooper has a low average of 17, to go with a shocking strike rate. There seems to be a good chance he’ll play in the opening games, due to availability issues for other players and he’s apparently been playing well in grade cricket, if that’s worth anything. I’m unconvinced that he’ll have a positive impact, there aren’t many other options though.
James Bazley - Had some impressive moments in his debut season, including back to back knocks in his first two innings. From there, he didn’t really kick on and had five single figure scores in a row and as a result he lost his place in the team. Despite that I’m still expecting him to be in the team initially.
Jack Wildermuth - Pace bowling all-rounder, mainly operates towards the start of an innings. Has only bowled 10% of his overs at the death and has gone for over 12rpo when he has done. His bowling stats aren’t that impressive and he has an unusually poor wicket taking record. His batting is better than the number suggest though and I think he’ll have a good season in that regard as a lower order hitter.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman - The BBL has probably been his strongest tournament, along with the solitary season of CPL he played. He did very well in the game he was available for Brisbane Heat last season, taking 14 wickets in eight matches at under 6.3 rpo. Slightly better against LHB’s but it’s only marginal. Will be eager to have another good tournament here, as he’ll want to put his name back in the hat for IPL franchises.
Mark Steketee - Takes regular wickets but is very expensive and concedes a boundary from 22% of his deliveries. His wicket taking ability isn’t all that valuable either, given it mainly takes place later in an innings.
Xavier Bartlett - Bowled a lot during the powerplay last season and did well when he eventually started playing full games. Considering they aren’t exactly bless with local fast bowling options, he should play in as many games as possible.
Matt Kuhnemann - This season will be a big opportunity as he should play most games, in the absence of Swepson. Plenty of BBL teams also have middle order players that struggle against spin, so he could do well.
Marnus Labuschagne - In t20 terms, he’s very much an ‘anchor’. However, we should be careful labelling him as one because he hasn’t played a significant amount of matches in his t20 career yet. Had a good stint with Glamorgan in the T20 Blast, scoring 390 runs in eight matches at a strike rate of 140, batting mainly at three. So it was an improvement based on what we’ve seen in his matches for Brisbane Heat, these were his splits for Glamorgan:
Definitely looks to be in the mould of a more traditional player, impressive acceleration throughout his innings though. Unsurprisingly given these stats, he scored at a much faster rate against non-spin (155), than against spin (119). He’ll play in any games he’s available for and will also give them a useful sixth bowling option.
Mitchell Swepson - Along with Mujeeb, he has been the standout bowler for Brisbane in recent seasons. His performances have earned him call ups to Australia squads as a back up to Zampa. Will definitely be a big miss for Brisbane, due to his involvement with the Ashes squad.
Michael Neser - Returns to the Heat this season but they’re unlikely to see much of him, due to his involvement in the Ashes squad. I’m not sure he’ll play at any point during the series but Australia often like to keep at least two fast players in reserves for their test series and those two seem to be Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser. He isn’t a standout t20 player anyway, so his absence won’t be felt for Brisbane as much as Carey for Adelaide or Richardson for Perth will be. Nevertheless I still think he’ll be a guaranteed starter when available.
In my opinion, Brisbane have probably slightly improved their squad this season. However, due to a combination of availability issues and me believing they weren’t as good as their performances suggested last season, I’m not sure they have enough to realistically challenge for top 3/4 spot. Even though their recruitment was better this season, they’re still lacking in some places, particularly from a pace bowling perspective.
I can’t rule them out of sneaking into the play offs again but I don’t expect them to be one of the stronger teams this season and rather a mid table side that will finish 5th/6th.
Thanks for reading!
Stats: cricmetric
