The much awaited season 10 of Big bash League is here after all that COVID-19 pandemic delay and we can’t wait to get it started. The tournament will begin tomorrow with the opening match between Hobart Hurricanes and the defending champion Sydney Sixers while the final will be played on 6th February. In this approximately 2 months period, 8 teams will compete among each others for the title.
What You Know in this article
Here in this article, we take a look at the tournament preview where we will be discussing about the key factors in this year’s BBL. Three new rules have also been introduced to this year’s BBL and we will explain it too. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about 10th season of Big Bash League.
- Opening date : December 10, 2020
- Final : February 6, 2021
- Number of teams : 8
- Format : Double Round Robin
Teams
There will be 8 teams in this tournament as usual, out of which 5 will qualify for the playoffs. The final group game will be played on 26th January. Here are the 8 teams with some of their star players.
- Adelaide Strikers : Travis Head (C), Alex Carey, Cameron White, Peter Siddle, Rashid Khan
- Brisbane Heat : Chris Lynn (C), Marnus Labuschagne, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Morne Morkel, Tom Banton
- Hobart Hurricanes : Matthew Wade (C), Tim Paine, Dawid Malan, Sandeep Lamichhane
- Melbourne Renegades : Aaron Finch (C), Rilee Rossouw, Mohammad Nabi, Imran Tahir
- Melbourne Stars : Glenn Maxwell (C), Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Nicholas Pooran, Jonny Bairstow
- Sydney Thunder : Callum Ferguson (C), Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ben Cutting
- Perth Scorchers : Mitchell Marsh (C), Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Liam Livingstone
- Sydney Sixers : Moises Henriques (C), Jason Holder, Carlos Brathwaite, James Vince, Joshua Philippe
Format
As usual, this year’s Big Bash format will again be double round robin based where every team will take on each other twice in the group stage making it a total of 14 league games. Top 5 teams from there will qualify for the playoffs and 2 will move through to the finals.
Where to watch
In India, Sony Six Network will telecast this tournament as usual. The channels might vary if there are more than one matches in a day. SonyLiv will stream the tournament for digital viewers. For English viewers, BT Sport will telecast it on TV and BT Sport app will stream it online.
Players availability
The concern for every franchise though, is the availability of their star overseas players. Not everyone is going to play the entire tournament and the team managements of every team have to prepare well for that. Tom Curran has already pulled out of the tournament just before the opening game. Here is some information about the availability of some of the big overseas players.
- Players available for first 3 games only : Dan Lawrence (Heat), Noor Ahmad (Renegades), Joe Clarke (Scorchers)
- Players available for first 4 matches only : Colin Ingram (Hurricanes), Will Jacks (Hurricanes)
- Players available for first 9 matches only : Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Heat)
- Players available for first 10 matches only : Rashid Khan(Strikers), Mohammad Nabi (Renegades)
- Players available after Christmas only : Phil Salt (Strikers), Tom Banton & Lewis Gregory (Heat), Keemo Paul & Dawid Malan (Hurricanes), Imran Tahir (Renegades), Jonny Bairstow (Stars), Jason Roy & Liam Livingstone (Scorchers), Adam Milne & Sam Billings (Thunder)
- Players available after New Year only : Sandeep Lamichhane (Hurricanes)
- Nicholas Pooran from Melbourne Stars will be available from 19th Dec 2020 to 10th Jan 2021
New Rules
Cricket Australia has come with 3 new rules to make this season of BBL more exciting and innovative. Let’s break those rules down in detail.
X- Factor :
Batting team will be allowed to replace a batsman with some other batsman outside of the playing 11 after 10th over. Similarly, bowling team will also be allowed to replace a bowler with some bowler outside of playing 11 but the bowler to get replaced shouldn’t bowl more than one over.
Power Surge :
As per this rule, batting team can take the batting powerplay of 2 overs anytime after 10th over. In this period, only 2 fielders will be allowed outside 30 yards circle. However, the mandatory powerplay will be of 4 overs instead of 6 in a normal T20 match.
Bash boost :
This is the most interesting rule of all. The team which will have more runs after the end of 10 overs mark will be awarded one bonus point. So even if a team loses the match but has more runs than the winning team at the end of 10 overs mark, it will get one point from the game.
3 Overseas Players into the playing 11 :
This rule perhaps makes the most sense as CA decided to extend the number of overseas players in a side from 2 to 3. In IPL though, it is 4.
