BBL|09 season preview: Sydney Thunder

The Sydney Thunder have experienced huge squad turnover after a disappointing BBL|08 campaign that saw them finish one point away from the finals.

New coach and former Heat assistant Shane Bond has made his mark on the squad, bringing Alex Ross and Brendan Doggett from Brisbane and ensuring the franchise has been active in the market.

The result has been the outstanding international additions of Englishman Alex Hales and South African Chris Morris, with both players set to be available for the duration of the tournament.

Usman Khawaja's omission from the Test squad is also a major bonus for the Thunder; the classy left-hander has an outstanding BBL record and was instrumental in the club's unlikely charge to the title in BBL|05.

The Thunder have, however, replaced the loss of a lot of experienced heads such as Fawad Ahmed and Shane Watson with largely unproven youth, and while the increased presence of Khawaja and the two experienced internationals will go some way to making up for those absences, it will be interesting to see how Bond's faith in his young guns pans out.

BBL|08 result: Sixth

Squad: Jonathan Cook, Oliver Davies, Brendan Doggett, Callum Ferguson, Matt Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales (OS), Usman Khawaja, Jay Lenton, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Morris (OS), Arjun Nair, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Chris Tremain

(Players can be added during the tournament if squad members are unavailable due to injury or national selection)

Ins: Brendan Doggett, Alex Ross, Chris Tremain, Oliver Davies, Alex Hales, Chris Morris

Outs: Fawad Ahmed, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Patrick Cummins, Ryan Gibson, Liam Hatcher, Kurtis Patterson, Sam Rainbird, Shane Watson, Anton Devcich, Chris Jordan

Possible Best XI for first game: Usman Khawaja, Alex Hales, Callum Ferguson, Jason Sangha, Matt Gilkes, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Morris*, Chris Green, Chris Tremain

The inside word with head coach Shane Bond

The off-season

I'm rapt. We were really proactive early with some gaps we wanted to fill in our squad from last year. I thought the boys played pretty well last year and we had some real inexperience in our team, but we had some guys get some great experience under their belts – Jason Sangha, Daniel Sams, Matt Gilkes coming in at the back-end of the season. And we wanted to add some pieces around those guys to complement them and add depth to the squad. We feel like we've done that, we think we've got a couple of really good overseas players, and we've got a lot of bases covered.

Alex Ross was a terrific pick-up for us, we think he'll do some wonderful things. He'll bat in the middle order, and we've got a couple of (practice) games against the Sixers coming up, so they'll be good to give the guys a hit-out, get them into the swing of T20 cricket and finalise a few things.

Injury update

Ollie Davies has a busted arm, so he won't play that first game and we'll have to see how he goes beyond that. Everyone else is fully fit and ready to go. I think every coach in the BBL has their fingers and toes crossed as it gets close, especially with all the Shield cricket going on.

Player availability

We were really keen to get a couple of internationals who were available for the whole season. Alex Hales arrived on Friday and Chris Morris has still got finals to play in (the Mzansi League in) South Africa, so I'm not sure what date he'll be here (Morris’s Mzansi League side lost their qualifying final on Saturday morning AEDT). But they'll be available all the way through and hopefully into the finals. It's brilliant, we've got that continuity through the whole season which we thought was important, and they're two very fine players.

The way Australia are playing it's going to be tough for Usman Khawaja to get back into the Test side at the moment. But he's done a great job in one-day cricket, so we'll have to see what happens with that tour to India in January. But outside of him, we're unlikely to be affected by any rep selection.

The imports

Chris Morris is an all-round package. He's done death-bowling and done it for a long time – at 140kph-plus. And if you look at his batting career strike-rate, he hits the ball hard – he goes at 150 and can change a game. Someone like him, along with Daniel Sams, gives us a whole range of options in terms of team make-up. He's got skills, he's got experience and he's available for the whole season.

'Watto' (Shane Watson) is a tough man to replace because he was so destructive, but I've worked against Alex Hales with New Zealand and he belted us a few times. I had him at Mumbai for a little bit so I know him, and he's a popular guy. It's not easy to get a guy of his quality for the whole season, and I can see him doing something special over the course of the tournament – somebody's going to cop it at some point in time.

Young gun

I'm looking forward to Matty Gilkes' continual development. I've been excited for him playing in the Marsh Cup and the Shield, and to make that New South Wales team in both formats is a credit to his ability. There's no doubt he's an up-and-coming star, and he showed glimpses of that last year. He's a fabulous talent, a terrific stroke-player and now he has the opportunity to play a whole season, with the gloves on as well. I'm really excited to see what he can do.

Player to watch

I'm going to go away from the big guns. I'm looking forward to seeing how our young leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha goes. Fawad Ahmed's a hard man to replace, but Tanveer was around our group last year working alongside him. He's dominated grade cricket, he's played in our quad series as a prep to the tournament and always done well. He's at the 19s (national championships) now and is a hell of an exciting prospect. He's got a nice, calm head on his shoulders and he thinks about the game well. So I'm looking forward to him getting his opportunity and seeing what he can do. We think he'll be a terrific player. It'll be an amazing experience for an 18-year-old leggie, and I wouldn't put anyone out there who I didn't think was ready.

Biggest strength

Versatility. We've got a bit more depth and experience than we had last year. With six fast bowlers and four spinners, regardless of the conditions we think we can put out a team that matches up well with anyone. The beauty now with a five-team finals series is you're likely to be in the race right until the end, so I think that's a great initiative. If we get on a roll as a team and we're clear about what we want to do, we think we can go a long way in the tournament.

Biggest threat

The Renegades are still the team to beat. Their team hasn't changed much from last year. They'll miss Aaron Finch during the India one-day series, but I thought they played really well last year. They're a well-balanced, deep squad, and they know how to win now. I also think Shaun Marsh is a terrific pick-up for them. But you look across all the rosters and anyone can beat anyone on their day.