Back-to-back KFC SuperCoach BBL winner Andrew Langley reveals his team for BBL13
Andrew Langley made history when he won SuperCoach BBL in consecutive years. Now, he’s planning a threepeat. This is his team for BBL13.
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With less than two weeks to go until the start of the BBL13 season, I am enjoying the challenge of trying to piece together my Round 1 SuperCoach BBL team.
The first round has given us a lot to think about, with Brisbane Heat playing three matches and four other teams playing two matches.
There are four key factors I am still weighing up:
● The recent announcement of the Prime Minister’s XI team
● Rashid Khan withdrawing from the BBL due to a back operation
● The unknowns about the final make up of the Test squad and whether players will be released to play BBL.
● Will the players from teams who have multiple Round 1 matches actually play in both (or all three) games?
I have studied the fixture the same way I do every year and I have come up with a team structure that isn’t focused on me winning Round 1, but trying to set my team up for the whole season.
The first thing people will note with my team is that I do not have any players from the Sydney Sixers, even though they play two matches in the first round.
This decision has not been made lightly with proven quality performers such as Sean Abbott, Tom Curran and the value-priced Josh Philippe missing out on selection in my starting team.
The only thing that will change my mind on the Sixers will be if I decide to start with less Heat players.
The reason for this is the Sixers’ fixture does not look as attractive to me as the other teams who play two games in the first round.
I am looking to start three Brisbane Heat players to try and take advantage of their Round 1 triple without going overboard due to the uncertainty of them having four players selected in the Prime Minister’s XI.
There is a risk that all of those players could return to the Heat side to play their final game in Round 1, which will mean other players could lose their spots.
Price changes (mostly negative) could also be huge for Heat players due to their three games impacting break evens more than other teams.
That is another consideration that I am weighing up.
Early in the season I want to try and increase team value as quickly as possible and because I am likely to trade Heat players straight out after round 1, I don’t want to lose too much value if they were to perform poorly.
The rest of my starting XI is made up of players from teams on the double, while I have tried to use my bench players to get ahead and have those whose teams play doubles in coming rounds.
Wicketkeepers – Sam Billings (Sam Whiteman)
The wicketkeeper spot can be a volatile scoring position, so I have chosen Billings due to him getting three opportunities to score in round 1.
Whiteman looks great value at $62k, particularly if gets the opportunity to open for the Scorchers. I am hoping that he generates some good cash on my bench.
Batters – Aaron Hardie, Will Sutherland, Colin Munro, Sam Harper, Glenn Maxwell, (D’Arcy Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk)
With my batting line, I usually try to load up on players who are a good chance to also get a bowl, because scoring can be very hit-and-miss for batters.
Sure, batters can come out and make a hundred, but I prefer players in my team who have two opportunities to score points in a game.
After all, SuperCoach is often about working the percentages in your favour.
However, the announcement of the PM’s XI has made choosing all-rounders a greater challenge, with the likes of Cameron Green, Michael Neser, Beau Webster, Matthew Renshaw and Nathan McSweeney now off my target list.
Aaron Hardie is my most expensive batter and I am hoping that he can duplicate his breakout season last year and get off to another flyer. He could bat in the top three and be bowling.
He plays after my bench emergency, so I am leaving the chance open to switch him to the bowling line and replace him in the with a loophole (DNP) player if I want to take the emergency score.
Sutherland seems to be coming of age and I don’t want to miss out on the Renegades’ great opening fixtures, playing five matches in the first three rounds.
Munro and Harper are the most recent additions to my team as they do not have the dual role, however I am favouring them because Munro will have three chances to bat and Harper will give me a wicketkeeper in my team on the bye in each round from Round 2 to Round 6.
This will give me the chance to have more flexibility to use that bye player to look at my emergency wicketkeeper, emergency batter and vice-captain scores during that run.
I imagine like with many other coaches, Glenn Maxwell was first picked in my team because he is in good form coming back from the World Cup and wthe Stars have three double game rounds in the first five rounds.
Fraser-McGurk has made it in for a bench spot after scoring the fastest hundred in a one-day game earlier this season and I am hoping that he can secure a place in the Renegades’ side and repeat that effort.
D’Arcy Short takes the other bench spot in readiness for Round 2 when the Adelaide Strikers play two matches and I am hoping that he can bring some form that we have seen from him in past seasons at his new club.
Bowlers – Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Marcus Stoinis, Paul Walter, Cooper Connolly (Matt Short, Jamie Overton)
Hopefully Richardson and Zampa return home fit and firing from the India T20 series, as I am counting on them giving me some pace and spin variety and playing five times in the first three rounds.
Stoinis has potential to be in the same mould as Maxwell if he bats up the order, so like with D’Arcy Short, I am hoping that he can produce some of his past form.
I have not watched Walter play, but I am hearing good things about the English allrounder who is likely to get plenty of opportunity at the Heat with both bat and ball.
Connolly had a great role for the WA one-day team in their last match, opening the batting and bowling 10 overs, so I am hoping that he can get a similar opportunity for the Scorchers.
He is in my team as a player who I can switch around with Hardie depending how my bench emergencies go, or I could trade him down to a non-player, depending on how my bench emergencies perform.
After the announcement of the PM’s XI, I have found room to put Matt Short on my bench — although I would never normally pay that much for a bench player.
However, I have left the flexibility to see how he performs, by making him emergency, and I can bring him on field if he does well in his round 1 match against the Heat — who are missing a bunch of key players.
Overton takes the final spot in my team, mainly to try and stay ahead on Adelaide players for round 2.
I’m hoping that he can adapt to Australian conditions quickly.
While most others will have a stronger round 1 team than me, I am confident that this line-up will give me a good starting base with enough flexibility to set up my attack over the full SuperCoach season.
There will likely be some changes over the next few weeks as team and player news is confirmed, but Diabolical Point is almost in position and I am ready for the challenge ahead.
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Originally published as Back-to-back KFC SuperCoach BBL winner Andrew Langley reveals his team for BBL13
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