- Sunrisers Hyderabad
- Perth Scorchers
- Nottinghamshire Cricket Club
What comes to mind when you hear these team names?
Their bowling.
These three sides have always been bowling heavy, something which is quite opposite of what you do while building a T20 squad.
Rashid Khan flying in a different leagueT20 is all about entertainment, where a six is not a novelty, but a regular affair.
Grounds are made smaller, pitches are made flat, and hard-hitters are bought in T20 leagues at atrocious amounts- just to make sure the crowd is entertained.
T20 is often seen by cricket gurus as cricket’s golden ticket to being an international sport. And the more sixes a side scores, the more entertaining the games get, resulting in skyrocketing popularity of the sport.
There’s a small twist though.
With teams focussing on six hitting powerhouses, its the clever bowling that’s getting the teams the most number of wins.
The Scorchers (Jhye Richardson, Hilton Cartwright, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Behrendorff, Coulter-Nile), Sunrisers (Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nabi, Shakib, Chris Jordan, Stanlake), and Notts (Ish Sodhi, Jake Ball, Samit Patel, Dan Christian, Harry Gurney) are a living and breathing proof of that. Nottinghamshire won the T20 blast last year. Sunrisers made it to the finals in this year’s IPL. And the Scorchers were knocked out of the BBL this year in the semis,
after closing the group stages at the top.
It’s not a coincidence, these three have been the most consistent sides of their respective tournaments for many years now.
Maybe bowling in the right areas and taking wickets aren’t as glamorous as hitting the ball out of the park. But if you want to have a side that wins the tournament, maybe focus on picking up the bowlers first while you put up a side together.
What are your thoughts on the secret to win games in a T20? Do you prefer watching a side with hard-hitters or wicket-takers?