The players to avoid in your SuperCoach BBL team for 2025-26
Unavailable, injured, too expensive, poor fixture or just a bad idea. Here are the players to avoid in SuperCoach BBL.
Sometimes the bad decisions you don’t make in SuperCoach can be more valuable than the good ones you do.
Passing on a player can deliver huge benefits, starting with freeing up a spot for a better option to help you climb the rankings and claim bragging rights against your mates.
That is especially true in BBL where players can become available or unavailable at short notice due to Test or international commitments.
Here are the names to know who won’t be around to start the season – or are just a bad idea.
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SAM CURRAN (SIXERS)
The star English all-rounder shapes as an obvious target as he prepares for his BBL debut after being taken with the first pick in the overseas player draft in June.
Making the selection even more appealing is the fact the Sixers playing twice in round 1, against Perth and Adelaide. But Curran is one of four players currently on BBL lists who have signed to play in the ILT20 tournament, which kicks off this week in the UAE and runs until January 4.
Curran, Lockie Ferguson (Sydney Thunder) and David Payne (Perth Scorchers) will all line up for the Desert Vipers and will miss the opening weeks of the BBL.
Tim David is also in Dubai with the Sharjah Warriorz but he will play only the first two weeks before returning to Australia to join the Hobart Hurricanes – great news ahead of their round 1 double.
SEAN ABBOTT (SIXERS)
Curran’s teammate currently features in 14 per cent of teams, which seems unders for a bowler who has taken more BBL wickets than any other player. Except Abbott is in the Ashes squad, and also battling a hamstring injury – $133k is a lot to pay for a guaranteed DNP in round 1.
Michael Neser is also a huge watch after his heroics in the second Test in Brisbane. A proven BBL star available at bargain price, he’s currently in 35 per cent of teams with an eye to Brisbane Heat’s round 2 double. He could be released if Pat Cummins returns to the side, but if not we’ll have to find a Plan B fast.
Most of Australia’s Ashes stars are unavailable until the end of the fifth Test on January 8, but keep them in mind for a late-season recruiting spree.
The likes of Travis Head (Strikers), Josh Inglis (Scorchers), Steve Smith and Mitch Starc (both Sixers) will be back for the last three rounds, assuming they get the all-clear from the Aussie medicos.
Head’s Strikers have a double in round 7 so he could deliver an instant hit while Smith and Starc will be high on the shopping list for the Sixers’ final round double.
The Renegades have a double in round 8, a great time for Nathan Lyon to make his BBL debut in his third year on the Gades’ list.
Keep an eye on Ashes squad member Beau Webster (Hurricanes), who isn’t currently in the Test team and could be released early to play in the BBL. The same could apply to pacemen Scott Boland (Stars) and Brendan Doggett (Renegades) if Australia’s injured quicks return to the Test side.
SPENCER JOHNSON (HEAT)
The Brisbane quick has been ruled out for the season with a back injury, opening the door for other names to fill the Heat bowling slots.
Mark Steketee, the most expensive player in SuperCoach, is also set to miss the summer with a hamstring injury.
They join Sydney Thunder marquee signing Ravi Ashwin on the injury list. The Indian off-spinner ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury. And there are some other SuperCoach stars carrying niggles, or worse.
Spencer Johnson’s hopes of featuring in next year’s Twenty20 World Cup have been all but dashed with the Australian paceman ruled out of the Big Bash League season for Brisbane Heat with his longstanding back injury.https://t.co/NkOpfNxCGnpic.twitter.com/ShxJ5gMuU0
— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) December 3, 2025
Perth quick Lance Morris was ruled out for 12 months after surgery in August to address an ongoing back problem. The Scorchers’ bowling line-up remains up in the air with Jhye Richardson racing the clock to be fit in time for the season-opener after a slow recovery from shoulder surgery last summer.
In better news, Glenn Maxwell is expected to be available for the Melbourne Stars in round 1 after recovering from a fractured wrist.
MATT SHORT (STRIKERS)
This is a big call on the fifth-most selected player in SuperCoach BBL (and it could definitely blow up in my face). Short has an amazing role, opening the batting and occasionally the bowling with his tidy off-spinners, and as a result had the third-best average of any player to feature in at least three games last summer.
Those results also make him very expensive – $214,300, more than any other player except Mark Steketee and Steve Smith (and I wouldn’t start with either of those guys, either).
It’s worth noting Short bowled only 15 overs in his seven matches last season, often missing the three-over benchmark to earn extra points via the strike rate bonus.
But the real reason to look elsewhere is the Strikers’ schedule. Targeting players on double-game rounds is a tried and true method for SuperCoach success, and Adelaide doesn’t have a double until round 7.
Invest the funds elsewhere and target Short to bring in at round 6 or 7 – hopefully at a reduced price.
HARRY NIELSEN (STRIKERS)
Nielsen has been a Strikers stalwart, playing in the Big Bash since before it was the BBL. But in that time he has never been a SuperCoach option. Unfortunately – unlike Short – Nielsen’s role is terrible for fantasy scoring, He is an accomplished wicketkeeper, but he doesn’t bat until way down the order, if he gets to the crease at all; in BBL14 he batted five times in 10 matches, facing on average fewer than 10 deliveries in each of those innings. And he could lose his spot behind the stumps when Alex Carey returns from Ashes duty.
Catches and a rare stumping can only earn you so many points in SuperCoach BBL. Spend a bit more and buy a keeper who can smash some runs early like Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott or Joe Clarke. Conveniently, that trio all has an early double this season.
Originally published as The players to avoid in your SuperCoach BBL team for 2025-26
