The Trent Rockets were unable to make a successful defence of their title a year ago and now the Trent Bridge based outfit will go about getting their hands on the trophy once again in a campaign where the attention is probably on a couple of the other teams which might be no bad thing. The Rockets are usually a dangerous side and will be out to prove that they should be being talked about more than they are.
Stats
Last Season: 5th
Captain: Lewis Gregory
Key Players: Alex Hales & Rashid Khan
Best Odds: 7/1 General
Fixtures
Jul 26: Northern Superchargers (a)
Jul 29: Manchester Originals (a)
Jul 31: Birmingham Phoenix (h)
Aug 3: Welsh Fire (h)
Aug 7: London Spirit (h)
Aug 10: Southern Brave (a)
Aug 12: Birmingham Phoenix (a)
Aug 14: Oval Invincibles (h)
Squad
Joe Root, Rovman Powell, Rashid Khan, Imad Wasim, Alex Hales, Lewis Gregory, Luke Wood, Tom Banton, John Turner, Sam Hain, Sam Cook, Calvin Harrison, Jordan Thompson, Adam Lyth, Ollie E Robinson, Tom Alsop
Preview
When you consider that the Trent Rockets were the winners of this tournament in 2022, to go from that to largely unfancied two seasons later potentially off the back of one poor season is quite a big drop. The other reason why they might not be as fancied as in previous campaigns is that Nottinghamshire made an absolute mess of the Vitality Blast, but then when you look down their squad there is only one Outlaws player left in it and that is Alex Hales who has been in Sri Lanka for the last few weeks.
The big question for the Rockets is whether they can deliver the goods without Dawid Malan in their side. In Sam Hain they have a possible superstar in their ranks but he will bat high enough to make an impact with Joe Root returning from the second week of the competition remains to be seen. There has been a lot of change in their bowling department at Trent Bridge as well but any team which has Rashid Khan in it has to be taken seriously.
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Betting
The Trent Rockets batting market is a difficult one to solve. If I was certain that Sam Hain would bat at three for the entire tournament then I would have no hesitation in backing him to be the leading batter for them but with Joe Root to come back after a week and three openers who will all feel that they should be in the side there just isn’t that guarantee. Alternatively, if I could get the poor Blast form of Alex Hales out of my head I might have gone for him but as I can’t I’ll target the bowling.
Rashid Khan is a warm order in the top bowler market and that is fair enough except that we don’t know for sure when he is going to arrive from Major League Cricket and that would be a huge concern. Sam Cook has recently returned from injury and although he has had a decent Blast campaign I’m not sure that Ollie Robinson will play enough. Jordan Thompson has 20 wickets in the Blast this season though and with the Rockets looking for someone to fill the void left by Daniel Sams, the Yorkshire all-rounder could be the man to deliver on that. At 5/1 he feels like the value in this market.
Tips
Back J.Thompson Top Trent Rockets Tournament Bowler for a 1/10 stake at 6.00 with Bet365
