Telegraph Fantasy Cricket Team Update
Well the Telegraph Fantasy Cricket competition started its point scoring last week, so I thought it time to show who I went for and a brief reason why after my summary of some of the players a week or so back.
Batsman
Chris Rogers and Stuart Law are both excellent Australian batsman who should both score bags of runs pretty easily. Put them both in at 6 points and have a good foundation to the team, although I’ve now heard that Rogers is being replaced for the twenty20 tournament. Usman Afzaal was too cheap at 3 points to miss out on, despite every man and his dog choosing him. Marcus North of Gloucestershire has already shown points scoring ability with bat and ball, so despite not being a household name and 7 points, I chose him and stuck the captaincy on him so I expect big things now!
All Rounder
I was going with Rikki Clarke and ten Doeschate at 5 points each, but seeing the start of the season Boje has had and the fact he has the ability to score big in this game I changed my tactics a bit and stuck him in as a 7 pointer. And his double hundred over the weekend helped justify my decision! The other all rounder i went for is Azaar Mahmood from Kent. He may be 33, but at only 4 points he is a proven performer if he can keep fit.
Wicket Keeper
I went with Luke Sutton from Lancs here - despite a lack of time in the middle already I’ve taken a punt on someone a bit different at 5 points.
Bowlers
This is where i was most uncertain - there were a number of ways I could have played it, and I expect this to be where I’ll have to make changes. Saj Mahmood looked good value at 5, but being my third Lancs player I’m a little bit unsure, and he missed the games over the bank holiday weekend and I’m not sure why. Yasir Arafat always seems to do well in this country, so I stuck him in as a 7 pointer, alongside 6 pointer Kabir Ali. He seems to be a decent county pro and had ability to be talked about for England a few years back, but it’s a bit of a guess, and he has become injured as well! The final spot only came onto my radar whilst making my final changes - Saqlain Mushtaq from Surrey. I did have Pedro Collins from the same county in my team, but the thought of having a name as big as Saqlain at only 4 points was too big a temptation. Yes, being a spinner he may have to wait to get some wickets, and Schofield had such a blinding year last year getting in the team might be a struggle, but he has the potential to take big wickets so I took a bit of a gamble. It looks like Surrey will play him in the four day games and Schofield in the shorter forms of the game, so I might have to rethink my strategy here in a couple of weeks.
So there we have my brilliant title winning team! Well ok, maybe not, but it should do ok and my aim is to win the mini league that I’m in! Only problem is the injuries and lack of playing in the bowling department already! I won’t make any knee jerk reactions though as I was still top of the league when I looked last night!
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