Short-shrift: How Stanlake hopes to dominate BBL again

Billy Stanlake hopes a strong showing at the Indian Premier League campaign and a new BBL club can vault him back into Australian colours, admitting he lost his way during successive poor Big Bash campaigns with the Adelaide Strikers. 

Stanlake's trade to the Melbourne Stars (in exchange for Dan Worrall) was confirmed this week while the giant fast bowler was completing his six-day quarantine in a Dubai hotel room before he is permitted to join Sunrisers Hyderabad for his third IPL season with the club.

The 204cm fast bowler acknowledges he has been well short of his best during the past two BBL summers; he took just four wickets in 11 games last summer and conceded over nine runs per over for a second straight season.

Those numbers are a far cry from his ferocious, breakout BBL07 tournament in which he helped the Strikers to their maiden title and became a regular in Australia's T20 side. 

"I've definitely underachieved," he told cricket.com.au on the final day of his quarantine in the UAE. 

"It's been a rough couple of Big Bashes. I expect higher of myself – I'm the one who put the most pressure on myself. It was disappointing. 

"I lost a bit of confidence and I think others probably lost a bit of confidence in me as well. I've tried to rectify a few little things in pre-season and just get that confidence back and having the trust in my technique, my run-up - all the little things you don't need to worry about when you're playing."

Stanlake believes playing regularly on the wide expanses of the MCG, which encourage bowlers who favour a shorter length, will suit his bowling style more than Adelaide Oval with its tight square boundaries.

But the 25-year-old has not overlooked the weaknesses in his game that have been ruthlessly exploited by BBL batters in recent seasons.

Data provided by Opta show Stanlake's economy rate (10 runs per over) when bowling balls short or back-of-a-length was the worst in the BBL during the last two seasons (minimum 100 balls). 

Interestingly he did not actually bowl more short balls than other fast bowlers; 38 per cent of Stanlake's deliveries in that period were short, compared to the league leader Nathan Coulter-Nile (50 per cent of all his deliveries were short or back-of-a-length), as well as Jofra Archer (45 per cent), Kane Richardson and Sean Abbott (both 44 per cent).

But he was far more expensive than his peers when digging it in; Archer, Richardson and Abbott all conceded around eight runs per over on short balls during BBL08 and 09, while his new Stars teammate Coulter-Nile went at only 7.2.

That’s despite Stanlake being the fastest bowler in BBL09 and the only paceman to record an average speed above 140kph.

"When I first came onto the scene I was pretty lucky, and everything seemed to go fairly well for me early on," Stanlake explained. 

"As I played more, guys were starting to sit deeper and wait for that back-of-length ball and have a free swing. The length has been a big thing for me. 

"As soon as I've missed a bit shorter, guys have been all over it. That's something I need to adjust and something I'm continuing to work on.

"It's about getting that touch fuller and making sure you're not missing in that no-man's land around chest height – that's pretty much a free hit for the batter."

Having conceded he has, to an extent, been figured out, Stanlake has come up with some new tricks.

Being able to regularly execute his yorker and rediscovering swing with the new ball have been key focuses, while he is growing in confidence in delivering a 'knuckleball' slower delivery that is regarded as one of T20's most effective – and difficult – skills.

Arguably Australia's best exponent of it, Andrew Tye, honed his knuckleball for years by rolling his fingers back and forth over a cricket ball to perfect the art of disguising it, and has at various times lost confidence in his ability to bowl it.

But Stanlake has one major advantage; enormous hands. 

They are so big that despite developing an unfortunate habit of lifting his middle finger off the ball in his load-up in recent years, Stanlake was still able to bowl with minimal loss of pace, albeit making it harder to find swing.

"My knuckle-ball has come a long way in the last 12 months," said Stanlake.  

"I bowled it a little bit last year, I probably didn't bowl it much in the Big Bash as much as I should have, because I think it's a great weapon. 

"I (learned) it fairly easily – the bigger your fingers are, the easier it is. I was able to control it better than what I thought I was going to – I thought it was going to take a long time to get the hang of it but it was actually a fairly easy pick-up for me, purely because of the size of my fingers."

All of which Stanlake hopes can help him add to his 26 games for Australia. 

Asked if a standout IPL campaign can propel him back into international cricket, he said: "I don't see why not. 

"The IPL is the best competition in the world, it has got the best players in the world, if you're performing well over here it's a pretty good standard to uphold. 

"If you're doing it in against the best in the world there's no reason you can't get back into the Australian team."