Seeing double: Two games for Thunder to deliver

Sydney Thunder tackle the double game week for the first time this season.



Further, they are the lone team on the double which is also a first for BBL13.



After a tough start to the season, resulting in some poor Supercoach performances, we’re also getting a number of key options at discounted rates for round 4.



Let’s take a deep dive into their credentials and sus out who the best players to purchase will be with two bites of the cherry.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What we know</h2>



It’s been an underwhelming start to the season for the Thunder, but they were able to pick up a valuable last start win against the Stars.



The team largely picks itself, namely the top six, while there’s some uncertainty around the bowling attack.



That’s mainly due to the questions around the availability of Pakistani Zaman Khan.



The Pakistan Cricket Board have stated their players can only play until December 29 before leaving the tournament.



This is unfortunate as the Thunder play game two of their double on December 30, meaning he’d only get one game.



There is some chance he and the other Pakistan players are allowed to stay a little longer, but with the current information we have you’d lean further toward him not playing game two.



Provided they’re named for game one, this does strengthen the likelihood of their bowlers all getting both games of the double in.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Grounds</h2>



The Gabba



The average score batting first in domestic T20s at The Gabba in 2023 is 188.



The nice deck in Brisbane was also backed up in the Heat’s first game of the tournament, piling on 214 against the Stars.



While there’s big boundaries in Brisbane, this should bode well for the top order for the Thunder.



Sydney Showground



The average score batting first in domestic T20s at The Sydney Showground in 2023 is just 155.5, and in 2022 it was even less at 144.



Traditionally the pitch has plenty of life in it, so there’ll be plenty in it for the bowlers.



Masses of rain around Sydney throughout the week won’t be ideal either.



Across the two games, we’re looking at one good deck for the batters, and one for the bowlers.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Players</h2>



It’s a bit of an odd round in that it’s a little hard to advocate for any of the bowling contingent outside of Tanveer Sangha.



That’s due to a few reasons, with Khan’s looming early exit playing a role, along with the varying overs we’ve seen from their attack this season.



Sangha himself only bowled three overs last game, while we saw Nathan McAndrew bowl just the two.



Dan Sams bowled just two and three overs in his opening fixtures, before bowling his full allotment of fours overs last game, including the vital 20th over.



The batting attack are very hit or miss, but do possess a fair amount of fire power.



Here’s who I like:



1. Daniel Sams: One game back there were huge question marks over Sams, but the fact he’s batting at six and hopefully getting his four overs and bowling death gives him arguably the best role in Supercoach. He’s a wicket-taker, explosive late in the innings, and is coming off a monster score of 155, leaving him with a breakeven of -4, so there’s big money incoming.



2. Tanveer Sangha: Sangha comes in at a decent rate of $125k and is riddled in talent. He started with a bang with 94 points before two down weeks have stunted his cash growth, making him an affordable round 4 buy. He doesn’t always bowl the most conducive overs for taking wickets, but he’s classy enough to add a few scalps wherever he bowls.



3. Ollie Davies: The strike batsmen is teetering on the edge of a breakout score this season. He’s looked good in almost all knocks so far, but has regularly played more of an unnatural anchor role at times with early wickets falling around him. He’s very high risk as he goes hard from the first ball, but generally speaking if he gets to the magic 20 run mark there’s a big strike-rate bonus to boot.



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4. Alex Hales: Hales has struggled for form in recent months, is his age catching up with him? He&#8217;s averaged just 13.44 runs across his past 10 innings. I’m actually reluctant to have him at number four in my buys, but his poor start has him very cheap at just $100k on the dot. At the price, it should facilitate some big trades elsewhere. He notched his best innings in some time in Albury scoring 40 off 29, so hopefully that’s enough to kick him back into gear and towards some of those big scores we’ve seen time and time again in the past.



5. Cameron Bancroft: Bancroft should arguably be higher, and is probably the pick of the lot outside of Sams, but due to his impressive start to the tournament he’s priced accordingly at $183k which is very expensive. In three knocks this season he has scores of 30, 74 and 25. Further, he’s also taken the wicket-keeping gloves off Matt Gilkes as of last game which is another boost. If he’s where you want to allocate your funds there’s no pushback from me, but I’m personally playing the money game here.



6. Chris Green: Green has had a decent start to the tournament with bat and ball. He’s bowled his max four overs in two of three games which is encouraging and is batting at either 7 or 8. With a fragile batting order, opportunities with the willow do come up. My main issue is that he’s a fairly defensive bowler, backed up by his career strike-rate of 23.7. He’ll likely be low-ownership and could be a nice POD play for the round.



7. Zaman Khan: Can would be right up the pointy end of this list if playing both games. While unlikely, if we get any word of his availability for both games before they play on Wednesday night, get him in.



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Seeing double: Two games for Thunder to deliver

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