CAN SYDNEY THUNDER DEFEND THEIR BBL05 TITLE?

The previous season of the Big Bash League tournament, the season 5 saw the Sydney Thunder go on to become the champions, thus proving ti pundits that the form book does not always lead in the right direction.


With four years of failure, Mike Hussey came to the end of his illustrious career with the Big Bash trophy in his hands.

And while Sydney Thunder have lost their former captain and the very experienced Jacques Kallis, four new faces have come in to fill the vacuum created in the team.

Eoin Morgan, England’s one day skipper joins up with the Thunder as they prepare for the season six of the BBL tournament.

However, he will miss the back end of the season due to international duty for England. And due to a calf injury which he is recovering from, Shane Watson will not be available until the end of the Xmas period.

And the big question remains if Thunder can win the league once again, for a second consecutive time.

To help them to a great extent to advance in the league is their key man, Usman Khawaja. In the BBL05 season, he had been very instrumental to their success as he batted four times in the tournament, thus posting scores of 109, 62, 104 and 70 for 345 runs, and with a stunning average of 172.50

He scored his second century against the Adelaide Strikers, thus propelling the Sydney Thunder into their maiden BBL final, he also went on to score a 70 in the competition’s showpiece match, thus providing the backbone for a successful run chase in the season finale.

If he features once again, even better than he had in the last season, then Thunder will be able to repeat their success. However, Khawaja may be unavailable until the Australian test series is concluded.