G’day sports’ fans here’s your mate Joe Fortune with my guide to the upcoming men’s BBL comp. This is the 14th season of the Big Bash League in Australia. It is a Twenty20 cricket competition and will get under way 15th December 2024, with the final on 27th January 2025.
BBL Teams
In case you’re not familiar with the BBL here’s my quick rundown of the teams, their names and where the sides play: The Adelaide Strikers play home games at Adelaide Oval in South Australia, while the Brisbane Heat is at the Gabba aka the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Queensland.
The Hobart Hurricanes are based at Blundstone Arena in Hobart, and the Melbourne Renegades play at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne while The Melbourne Stars are at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the Perth Scorchers are at Optus Stadium in Western Australia. The Sydney Sixers home venue is at the Sydney Cricket Ground, while city rivals the Sydney Thunder play home matches at the Sydney Showground Stadium.
How to Watch the BBL 2024-25
You can enjoy 23 of the 43-game season on Seven Network and its free-to-air digital streaming 7Plus, this includes the finals. For those with KAYO or Foxtel subscriptions every match will be shown live on Foxtel and the Kayo Sports App. Of course, you can also catch the games live at your local pub or club throughout the summer too, especially if you’re needing to escape from the in-laws!
BBL Captains and Coaches
The Adelaide Strikers will be captained by Matthew Short with former Aussie Test Captain Tim Paine taking over as its coach. In Brisbane, the Heat has Test opening batter Usman Khawaja leading the team on the field with Johan Botha being in charge. The Hobart Hurricanes have the experienced Matthew Wade as captain under the insights of coach Jeff Vaughan.
The Melbourne Renegades will have Will Sutherland captaining the side and former Baggy Green Cameron White as head coach. Meanwhile, the Melbourne Stars are looking to see if Adam Zampa can spin them to glory as its skipper under their coach and former England Test Team leader, Peter Moores.
In the west, the Perth Scorchers are counting on Ashton Turner’s leadership and Adam Voges’ wealth of experience to keep them as the team to beat this year. The Sydney Sixers have Moises Henriques skippering them again with Greg Shipperd offering his tactical support as head coach. Lastly, the Sydney Thunder have a powerful pairing in David Warner alongside the strategic mind of Trevor Bayliss to try and go deep into the comp this time around.
Players to Watch in the 2024-25 Big Bash League
Let’s start with the Strikers, the two players I reckon are going to be key for this Adelaide side are the big hitting Chris Lynn and recent recruit the England all-rounder Jamie Overton. If Lynn can find the boundary with the bat and Overton settles into the line up with the ball the Strikers will be a tough team to play against.
Brisbane Heat can call upon a few players with huge experience and so I am seeing Usman Khawaja’s leadership in being key to the side going well. The Heat will also be hoping that Marnus Labuschagne finds form, as I reckon he will bolster the batting line-up, also keep an eye out on the very experienced Michael Nesher who will add plenty to the bowling unit.
The Hobart Hurricanes have got England’s Chris Jordan who is a gun with the ball and one of the best fielders, so expect him to put in some match winning performances. I also see Ben McDermott blasting a few runs this year to give Hobart a chance of reaching the finals.
The Renegades will be great to watch especially in the field as the Spin Twins of Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa could bamboozle a few sides with their trickery and magic when on turning pitches. Elsewhere in Melbourne the Stars have a couple of Poms who could be key to the side competing well. With Ben Duckett known as a destructive opener and Tom Curran bringing depth to the side as an allrounder the Stars might spring a few surprises this year.
Over in Perth, the Scorchers have a couple of Ashtons in their side namely Agar and Turner, both of whom are superb t20 players and will play a big part in the side having another run deep in the tournament. Proud Western Aussie Mitchell Marsh will add plenty of aggression to the team’s batting and always seems to produce for the side when called upon.
Finally, we’ve got the two Sydney sides, starting with the Sixers who look to have the strongest batting lineup I’ve seen in years. Whilst there are many I could call out, I will stick to the two players to watch this year being Steve Smith and James Vince. Both have played for the team for a good number of years, and I can see them being the backbone of the side against most bowling line-ups.
The Thunder will be captained by David Warner, and I can see him blasting many attacks around the grounds this year now that he no longer has international cricket to worry about. The other player in the side who should be on your list is spinning allrounder Chris Green, he could well pick up wickets and add crucial runs down the order for the Thunder.
Grudge Matches to Note
Sydney Sixers v Perth Scorchers; In summary these two teams have been the most successful and due to that it has become the most compelling of rivalries. They’ve met in the final five times, with Perth having won three and Sydney twice. Beyond that the Scorchers have won the title five times and over the Sixers which has claimed three. Also, both have been runners up three times which marks them both out as the teams to beat if you want to go well in the BBL. The Melbourne Derby comes as no surprise that these teams are from the same city and such is the interest that, to date, one of their games at the MCG attracted a crowd of over 80,000 which is the largest ever to have been to any BBL game in the competition’s history. The final grudge match to look out for is the Sydney Smash which sees the Sixers having a dominant position and boasting rights over the Thunder with almost twice as many wins over its rival from the harbour city. You can be sure that the Sydney Thunder will be all out to improve its record in this BBL.
