During Monday’s 2020 CPL Draft, defending CPL champions Barbados Tridents added a number of potential match-winners to their roster for the coming season. Among them are spinner Rashid Khan and the big-hitting Marcus Stoinis, players who returning batsman Alex Hales thinks will make the team better than before.
Hales believes having, Khan, the number-one ranked T20 bowler in their side is a massive boost for an already strong side.
“I have played against Rashid Khan a few times and had a season with him at Sunrisers Hyderabad. Any team that has Rashid Khan in it, you boost your chances of winning the competition,” Hales remarked.
“For me, he and Andre Russell are probably the two best T20 players in the world. So to have Rashid, particularly on the pitches that favour spin in the Caribbean he can an absolute handful. And he is fantastic in the field and obviously smacks a few at the end, so any team that has got him in their ranks seriously boosts their chances of winning.”
Hales is also very optimistic about the addition of Stoinis.
“We have signed Marcus Stoinis as well, and playing against him in the Big Bash, he was in the form of his life and scored runs in every game that he played. We seem to have got an even stronger squad somehow than we did last year. It is really exciting,” he said.
Hales will be linking up again with his Nottinghamshire teammate, Harry Gurney, for the 2020 tournament and he was full of praise for the left-arm seamer, saying he was crucial to their championship win. Gurney arrived for the home leg of the tournament at a time when the Tridents were far from certain of making the playoffs. Hales says his efforts helped guide them to the knockouts and beyond.
“Signing Harry Gurney was massive. He learns his trade on Trent Bridge, which is arguably the flattest pitch it the world. So, for him to bowl on probably bowler-friendly pitches was huge for us for him to come in for the back-end of the tournament.
“He played a massive part in us winning the whole thing. I think we can build on that for next year, knowing that if things don’t quite work out at the start of the tournament you have got time to figure it and not panic. And that is something Jason and Phil did really well, at no point did they get edgy or concerned about playing well at the start. Everyone kept a cool head and we really turned it on when it mattered which is a really good trait in a team.”