Adelaide Strikers

Last year: 6th on ladder (2 wins, 5 losses)

Overview

7 re-signed, 8 added, 6 lost, 7 not signed

Big gets

Kieron Pollard, Phil Hughes, Andrew McDonald

Big losses

Dan Harris, Tom Cooper

Possible limited availability

Nathan Lyon

Thoughts

Pollard missed last year’s BBL due to injury, this hurt the Strikers as I’m sure they’d been counting on him playing when they were assembling their squad, they’ll be glad to have him back for BBL|02. Phil Hughes withdrew from last year’s tournament (he was originally signed with the Thunder) to focus on ‘fixing’ his batting after being dumped from the test team for a second time, but he’s currently dominating the county scene in the UK, having particular success in the shorter forms of the game, he’s in good touch at the moment, and the Strikers will be hoping he is still in good nick by the time December rolls around.

Andrew McDonald – who captained the Renegades last year – is another good signing as he gives them extra batting and bowling depth. The gap for them at the moment is that they have no specialist wicketkeeper, presumably one of the three remaining spots on their list is for this purpose. On paper they are better than a 6th place team.

Grade

B+ Pollard and Hughes, provided they are in form, are great additions. Other new guys McDonald and Jon Holland should also be useful.