The Northern Superchargers had a much more positive season under the progressive coach/captain partnership of Andrew Flintoff and Harry Brook last term and all eyes will be on Headingley to see if the Superchargers can go one better than the previous campaign and book a spot in the finals. Only net run rate denied them that opportunity last time around and with Brook now the England white ball captain improvement is possible but two massive batters aren’t here this time which could hold them back.
Stats
Last Season: 4th
Captain: Harry Brook
Key Players: Harry Brook & Adil Rashid
Best Odds: 13/2 General
Fixtures
Aug 7: Welsh Fire (h)
Aug 10: Trent Rockets (a)
Aug 13: Southern Brave (a)
Aug 15: Birmingham Phoenix (h)
Aug 17: Manchester Originals (a)
Aug 20: London Spirit (a)
Aug 23: Oval Invincibles (h)
Aug 26: Manchester Originals (h)
Squad
Harry Brook, David Miller, Adil Rashid, Zak Crawley, Mitchell Santner, Dan Lawrence, Brydon Carse, Ben Dwarshuis, Matthew Potts, Michael Pepper, Dawid Malan, Pat Brown, Graham Clark, Tom Lawes, James Fuller, Rocky Flintoff
Preview
The Northern Superchargers were powered by the big hitting exploits of the likes of Nicholas Pooran and Matt Short while Adam Hose and Ollie Robinson were also solid contributors who weren’t kept on. In their place have come Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence, Dawid Malan and David Miller so although they have replaced the quartet, you wonder how much the Superchargers will be allowed to see of Crawley which would be a minor concern.
A bigger concern would be the look of the bowling unit were the spin pair of Adil Rashid and Mitchell Santner to prove ineffective. The likes of Reece Topley and Callum Parkinson have been discarded with and you wonder if England will release Brydon Carse for long periods of the tournament given his recent workload and obvious toe injury. With Pat Brown not the bowler that broke onto the scene, there is a lot of onus on Matthew Potts to have a big season.
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Betting
This is a potentially powerful looking Northern Superchargers batting unit, although it can’t possibly be as powerful as it looked on paper last season without Nicholas Pooran and Matt Short but the big questions are over availability and who will open the batting and who comes in lower down the order. You wouldn’t want to be on Harry Brook if he bats at four for example but at the same time I would need to know that Zak Crawley is going to open or the same with Graham Clark.
I’ll leave all the guesswork alone and take a bet in the bowling market where we can be pretty confident that Mitchell Santner will play all of the matches and given that he averaged two wickets per match for Surrey in the Vitality Blast earlier in the season in an attack which has wickets right through it, it isn’t going beyond the realms of possibility for Santner to lead the bowling here. Admittedly the market is a bit more competitive with Mohammad Amir in it now but I still think teams will have to go after Santner and that generally doesn’t end well. At 11/4 I think he’s fair value assuming teams play Adil Rashid out, which has been the growing trend.
Tips
Back M.Santner Top Northern Superchargers Tournament Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Betway
