The BBL season is properly underway, with every team having played a game and storylines starting to emerge. The Stars were smashed by a record margin in game 1, but will have several big reinforcements back for tonights game amid a flurry of international signings. The Thunder got off to a comfortable start, and will be confident that their well balanced squad can take them deep into the tournament with several quality players not in the best Xl at the moment. The game is at the MCG, and it looks like the weather should be all clear.

 

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Expected Stars Xl: Stoinis, Clarke, Larkin, Maxwell, Cartwright, Webster, Russell, Coulter-Nile, Zampa, Rainbird, Couch (Ahmad, Elliot)

 

Expected Thunder Xl: Hales, Whiteman, Gilkes, Billings, Ross, Sams, Cutting, Green, Sangha, Sandhu, McAndrew

 

The Stars come in as $1.70 favourites at home, with the bookies confident that some big inclusions will make all the difference. Those include Marcus Stoinis, Andre Russell and Nathan Coulter-Nile who all look likely to play. It’s a whole different team, with Stoinis able to start the innings strongly, Russell able to finish powerfully & take wickets, and Coulter-Nile a strike bowler when healthy. The bigger ground tends to play into the hands of Adam Zampa as players struggle to get him over the boundary, and it won’t be long until Glenn Maxwell starts firing again.

 

The Thunder showed two of their major strengths in their game 1 win, with Sam Billings and Alex Ross rock solid in the middle order, and a varied and skilled 6 man bowling unit able to suffocate opposition. The other strength they have is Alex Hales, who fell for a duck in that game but will win several games off his own bat. The big question mark for the team is is the other top-order parts in Sam Whiteman and Matt Gilkes. Both have talent, and in Whiteman's case many years of getting it done, but it has been a while and both will need to play well to help take the pressure off the rest of the batting order. Usman Khawaja and Oliver Davies are both potentially able to strengthen the batting further if they return this season.

 

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Love It - Andre Russell $15,400

 

Russell is the big name signing after being convinced by the Stars to play a cameo role for 5 matches. Named in the squad, I assume he’ll come in and play pinch-hitting roles with both bat and ball. With undoubted strike power in both aspects of the game (as well as good fielding), it won’t take much for him to cover this middle price tag and be a delight for Stars fans.

 

Love It - Glenn Maxwell $19,700

 

Maxwell is probably the highest ceiling player in the entire BBL, especially in terms of how regularly he can get there. It didn’t come off in game 1, but at the MCG I think his bowling will play a bigger role and he will feel right at home with the bat. The price is a tad below where I think it should be, so I’ll play him heavily and hope the “big show” comes off.

 

Don’t Love It - Marcus Stoinis $20,600

 

Like Maxwell, Stoinis is fantasy gold at this level, but it is slightly different in that he rarely fails, but his ceiling rate is somewhat lower. Given he’s coming off another little injury niggle and has come out and said he will not bowl, I want to give him a game or two to show me how he’s going before I invest with confidence. The Thunder has a quality bowling line-up which adds to the safety in fading Stoinis at the top of the order.

 

Don’t Love It - Alex Ross $13,900

 

Ross was fantastic in game 1, racking up 110 fantasy points in his unique ‘sweepologist’ style. Undoubtedly a huge asset in turning around a struggling innings, Ross still has a history of failing more often than he succeeds. Coming off what I believe is the best fantasy game of his BBL career, I’m happy to go light on Ross, and suspect that the bigger ground could reduce the impact of his play square of the wicket.

 

Who Knows - Joe Clarke $14,000

 

We didn’t see much from Clarke in game 1, which is now his third BBL game without contributing anything. It’s still too early to draw any inclusions, and his undoubted talent on the English circuit has me thinking he’ll still be a great play at some point soon. Still likely to open the batting, and now likely to keep with Peter Nevill out of the squad, I want to have enough exposure in case this is the game where he shows the BBL what he’s got.

 

Suggested Draftstars Lineup  

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