Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques says his team has no ‘gap fillers’ ahead of final

All the Test and overseas players are gone for the BBL finals and that’s fine with the Sydney Sixers who don’t need them to win.

The lack of “gap fillers” in the Sydney Sixers line-up is what makes them perennial BBL contenders and more than able to cover the absence of Test star Steve Smith in Thursday’s must-win final at the SCG.

As the Brisbane Heat attempts to keep its finals run alive without India-bound batters Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw, Sixers skipper Moises Henriques said the strength of his team’s sustained success was its non-reliance on international quality talent.

In his five innings, Smith has smashed 346 runs, the second most for the Sixers, with three batters having scored more than 300 runs for the tournament.

The Heat’s Test trio were third, fourth and fifth on their team’s run-scoring list despite limited appearances, with absent Kiwi star Colin Munro second.

As Brisbane turn to the likes of Max Bryant and Sam Heazlett, the Sixers will replace Smith with Daniel Hughes, who is just outside the top 10 all-time run-scorers in BBL history but hasn’t found a spot in the Sydney side until now.

That’s what Henriques says separates the Sixers, and the title-favourite Perth Scorchers, from the rest of the BBL hopefuls year on year,

Moises Henriques and Jordan Silk have both scored a pile of runs for the Sixers. Picture: James Worsfold/Getty Images

“I think the strength of your team comes from your domestic players anyway, as we’ve seen once all the international players have left, the Sixers and Scorchers again probably just jumped even further head in comparison to some of the teams that may have relied on their overseas strength,” Henriques told NCA NewsWire.

“There’s a lot of experienced players, a lot of guys who even beyond the 11 that play each game, there’s two or three guys that would be playing in other teams or other teams would love to have them.

“Throughout the season you do call upon 15 players, so to have those guys come in and not just fill gaps but win games and contribute to wining games, I feel like a lot of other teams, even with their best teams, there’s a few gap fillers, so we just don’t have any of those types of players in the group.”

Henriques even suggested that a BBL minus any overseas players next season would make it hard for anyone to beat the Sixers or Scorchers.

“The way we look at it is trying to sign three overseas players that can contribute into our least strongest parts of the team where we see a bit of an opportunity for improvement, which is a bit of a headache for our group to be honest,” he said.

Steve Smith won’t be there for the Sixers on Thursday. Picture: Steve Bell/Getty Images

“It’s hard work because we don’t really feel like we need to a lot of the time.

“I’d be advocating for no overseas players for next year. I’m sure the fans wouldn’t appreciate that, but it would definitely help our team’s chances of winning.”

Henriques said with seven BBL titles between them, the Sixers and Scorchers, who would meet in a replay of last year’s decider should Sydney win on Thursday, had put a gap on the rest of the competition.

“I would actually go as far as saying not just this year but the entire competition to be honest,” he said.

“To have seven titles between the two of us and no other team has won it twice; they have also lost two finals, we have lost two finals. We’ve both played in the grand final a lot.

“I would say in terms of consistency in franchise cricket, the Sixers and the Scorchers are right up there in T20 cricket around the world.”

Originally published as Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques says his team has no ‘gap fillers’ ahead of final