SuperCoach BBL: Trent Copeland’s team revealed

TRENT Copeland is carving up the Sheffield Shield this year and has his ear to the ground when it comes to young talent coming through.

HERE we go, the BBL is almost upon us again and that means it’s time to start honing your SuperCoach team. There’s obviously plenty of water to run under the bridge between now and game one of the season on December 19, but the core of my squad is locked in.

By way of strategy, I am one that believes in the law of averages. So whilst many high-upside players are affordable this year I ALWAYS pick my team with four categories in mind.

1. Fixtures!

2. Allrounders — must bat top 4 or bowl 4 overs every game

3. New ball, aggressive spinners and death bowlers

4. Opening batters

First and foremost, my law of averages chat is, the Scorchers and Heat play TWO matches in round one. I don’t care who you are, you basically have to score a 100 or take four wickets to outscore a guy playing twice. The caveat being, with limited trades you can’t just have double game week players (DGW), and that’s where categories 2, 3 and 4 come in to play.

So, with that in mind, here are the Crusaders for BBL08 …

Trent Copeland names his SuperCoach BBL side.

BATSMEN

D’Arcy Short (HOB|$258,900) gets this gig even if he does nothing but drink beer and lay on the beach in Perth before the BBL. He’s expensive, but anyone who can score double hundreds in 50 over games along with handy wrist spin is in my team regardless. Marcus Stoinis (MELS|$227,900) and Moises Henriques (SYD6|$88,000) are both extremely underpriced compared to what they are capable of — both bat top four and should feature with the ball.

The ‘Bash Bro’s’ from the Brisbane Heat, Chris Lynn (BNE|$202,000) and Brendon McCullum (BNE|$113,100), should be in 100 per cent of teams given they play twice in round one. Don’t overthink that one.Lynnsanity is locked in as my skipper as a double dose of the most dynamic batter in the competition is just too hard too pass up.

Bench: Max Bryant, Jason Sangha

Moises Henriques can produce with both bat and ball. Picture: Brett Costello

WICKETKEEPERS

I toyed with the idea of starting Alex Carey here as the Strikers play twice in round two, but I’ve ended up going with a man I think could open the batting for Australia at the World Cup in Ben McDermott (HOB|$115,300) who was one of the JLT One Day Cup leading run scorers to start the summer, with 427 runs at an average of 71.16. I think he is the best pure batsman of the keepers. If Carey starts well its an easy switch for the double game in round two.

Bench: Josh Inglis

Ben McDermott for the Australian T20 side.

BOWLERS

Rashid Khan (ADL|$198,800) is a must have, for two reasons. Firstly, he’s the best T20 bowler on the planet (that’s a fair reason in itself, eh?), and the MVP of the entire BBL07, leading the Strikers’ successful campaign last summer. Secondly, if you haven’t looked at the fixtures past the first round, the Strikers play twice in round two where Khan is a near lock for captain.

AJ Tye (PER|$246,800) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (PER|$125,000) play twice in round one and are two of the best white ball bowlers in Australia — seems pretty logical to pick them then doesn’t it! Both games are away from the WACA, but I think that may actually benefit the Scorchers’ pair. Coults provides very good late order hitting also!

Also on a double is Ben Cutting (BNE|$130,500) who’s a SuperCoach stalwart who ticks every scoring category … Bowls at the death, is always a focus of the batting team coming in with 5+ overs remaining to hit MASSIVE sixes and always fields in the hot spots at long on/long off.

Ben Cutting is a consistent SuperCoach perfiormer.

His teammate James Pattinson (BNE|$62,500) is the first player picked in my team with a double game and almost base price due to injury last year. If Jimmy is healthy, he will tear up the BBL.

Bench: Cameron Green, Jack Edwards

Well there you have it. Looks great on paper, and the likes of Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Jake Weatherald, Jofra Archer, Mujeeb Ur Rahmen, Daniel Sams and Shane Watson (amongst others!) are well and truly in the mix for round one selection if they impress on the training paddock.

Good luck!

MORE SUPERCOACH BBL CONTENT

Cheapie Bible / Schedule analysis / L-plate guide / Batsmen prices revealed / Bowlers prices revealed / Top 100 players in BBL / SuperCoach scoring system revealed / 10 commandments / Best batsmen / Best all rounders / Best bowlers / Best wicket keepers / 10 fearless predictions / BBL’s international onslaught / Poms set to dominate Big Bash / West Indian guns-for-hire / Full squad list

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Originally published as SuperCoach BBL: Trent Copeland’s team revealed