The Brisbane Heat will open the BBL09 season with a home game at the Gabba against the Sydney Thunder. The Heat come into the season opener as competition favourites but will be up against a Thunder side with Usman Khawaja, who has been a dominant force when playing for the Thunder in the Big Bash. There is no lack of international talent in this fixture with big hitting Englishmen Alex Hales and Tom Banton set to light up the top of the order for their respective sides.
Brisbane will take a close to full strength squad with the only notable names missing being Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Burns and James Pattinson who are all on test duties. Usman Khawaja’s axing from the test team is a massive bonus for the Thunder and looks set to form a formidable opening partnership with Alex Hales. The Thunder’s only notable absence is South African Chris Morris who is still playing in South Africa, he is only expected to miss the first two games of the Thunder’s campaign.
Brisbane Heat squad (13): Chris Lynn (c), Tom Banton, Max Bryant, Ben Cutting, Cameron Gannon, Sam Heazlett, Josh Lalor, Ben Laughlin, James Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Mitch Swepson, Zahir Khan
Sydney Thunder squad (13): Callum Ferguson (C), Jonathan Cook, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales, Liam Hatcher, Usman Khawaja, Nathan McAndrew, Arjun Nair, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, Chris Tremain
Heat vs Thunder Betting Tips
Heat
The Heat and Thunder had two controversial outings last season where the Heat won rain affected contest in Sydney where the Thunder only faced 5.3 overs, they then just over a week later scrapped out a draw where a power outage at the Gabba looked to have cost the Thunder an almost certain victory. The Heat have a strong head to head record of 6-1-1 against the Thunder, their only loss to the Thunder was way back in BBL04.
Max Bryant had a breakout season in BBL08 finishing as the Heat’s second highest run scorer with 335 runs at an average of 27, not a bad feat for a nineteen year old kid. Expect Bryant to come into this season full of confidence and given the new-found depth in the Heat’s batting line-up, Bryant will have even more of a license to go hard right from the word go. Bryant loves batting at the Gabba, his last BBL innings was a ballistic 71 not out from 30 deliveries against the Melbourne Stars in February. Expect Bryant to go big in the season opener.
Bryant top BRI batsman
$3.75
Thunder
The Thunder will need to shake a horrible head to head record against the Heat, the Thunder have only beaten the Heat once in the history of the BBL. The Thunder look to be taking a heavy spin attack with Chris Green, Arjun Nair and Jonathan Cook in the squad to face the Heat. With the absence of Chris Morris, Daniel Sams will need to step up. In BBL08, Sams was Thunder’s leading wicket-taker with 15 wickets at an average of 21.07 and scored 175 runs at a strike rate of 137.80. The Thunder will need to keep this game to a low scoring encounter if they are any chance to win.
Usman Khawaja will have his first full season in the BBL since the early years of the competition. Khawaja single handily won the Thunder the BBL05 title, when he scored 345 runs at a remarkable average of 172.5 from his four innings that season. The Thunder’s lack of batting depth means that Khawaja is going to have to carry a massive load at the top of the order for the Thunder. Expect a fired up Khawaja to come out looking to silence the critics in his first big outing since his test axing.
Khawaja top SYD batsman
$2.75
Prediction
The BBL season opener pits the championship favourites and against the favourites for the wooden spoon, however Usman Khawaja has shown an ability to win BBL games off his own bat. However against a Brisbane Heat side that boasts incredible batting depth, a deadly spin duo in Mitch Swepson and Zahir Khan, as well as experienced pace bowlers Ben Laughlin and Ben Cutting. The Thunder provide some solid value at $2.35 with BetEasy, however, the Heat’s depth with bat and ball and a big home ground advantage will be too much for the Thunder to overcome.
