im a vijay fan. great central districts opening batsman. we made him with his short stint here. i also think he's a pretty solid player. i think it was in sa that i was like wow, this cunt knows where his off stump is.
There was an article recently which tried to explain why round two of his overseas season didn’t go as well as the first. He left a huge percentage of balls the first time but that percentage significantly dropped in his next go. Possibly a combination of him being less sloppy and bowlers targetting his stumps more.
Round 9 1. Cabinet96 - Sean Abbott (398666) Picked a fair bit earlier than what his record should otherwise indicate because of his batting. Can see the logic, alas even then there were still better options out there. I like Abbott as a player but yeah this was early. 2. jimmy_c8 - Jason Behrendorff (272477) The main problem here is that he hasn't played red ball cricket for over two years. He did dominate when he did regularly play it so he probably should still be OK, but it's risky. Then again, so are most picks at this point. 3. morgieb - Tim Paine (7252) Yeah, I kind of wish I went another keeper at this point. On paper picking a Test regular at this point is a significant boon but there were probably better packages left over. 4. Number 11 - Scott Boland (446548) Pretty fair pick, though his most recent season has been a complete mare. 5. Benny - MS Dhoni (28081) Find this tough to rate. It's been a long time since he last played FC cricket but he has played ODI's in the interim and done quite well. A little bit earlier than what I'd want especially given better keepers were left over but finding players of genuine international class would be tough right now. 6. Julian - Joe Mennie (439288) See Boland. Stats wise they're very similar; Mennie the better bat whereas Boland has bowled on flatter decks. Think they're both good picks at this point. 7. HeathDavisSpeed - Brendan Taylor (55814) I'm a big stan for Taylor, but it does seem somewhat risky as his county performances were underwhelming TSTL and a lot of recent his international cricket has come against weaker opposition. Still, it could come off. 8. Gazza - Mandeep Singh (398506) A lot comes down to how well his current hot streak holds up, as before that his record wasn't all that special. If it continues it could be a great pick, if the bubble burts it'd be a weaker one. Risky. 9. Hunter - Mohammad Rizwan (323389) Very nice pick. He's someone I can see improving quite rapidly and already has a fair bit of value in the competition at large. 10. Boobidy - Mitchell Swepson (590326) On paper, it's a bad pick as his FC record is pretty ordinary. Weighted against that is that Australian domestics can be death for spin bowlers and he might improve given he's been blooded as Australia's second spinner. Still, I can't help but think you picked him because you hadn't heard of any other spinners () 11. Athlai - Shadab Khan (922943) A decent pick for Athlai's squad. I think there would be others in which he'd come as a bit of a no-rounder, but having Rahim here means you can take a punt on a guy who is clearly talented. 12. Skippos - Shane Dowrich (431905) Good pick on paper, but coming a pick after your other keeper is a bit of a question mark. He's probably good enough to play as a pure middle order batsman anyway, but even then there were a few better options left over. 13. StephenZA - Raynard van Tonder (595380) Not much of a track record here so far. He is talented though and has been immense so far this season. Still, probably earlier than what I would've wanted. 14. Magrat Garlick - Jaydev Unadkat (390484) Indian domestics is tricky to determine, but even then he'd probably still be the pick of the Indian bowlers over the last few seasons and has done well in the ODI's he's played. Very good pick. 15. Baxter - Stiaan van Zyl (267479) Excellent pick on paper. My only query is where he bats in your team - he's mostly batted #4 at county level and his record in Tests when opening was poor. Might be missing something though. 16. Alex - Liam Livingstone (403902) It's interesting you're going for a backup batsman in the first 10 rounds. Nevertheless, Livingstone should be good depth in a competition like this and can be a handy 6th bowler for good measure. 17. Phlegm - Greg Hay (269111) His poor 2019/20 hurts this pick somewhat and was probably why he slid, but he should still have some value here. A real favourite of Phlegm's too which will enhance his enjoyment of the competition. 18. MrPrez - Bjorn Fortuin His WPM seems lower than what it should be for a spinner, but still he seems a very nice option to supplement Shakib. Good fit for your team. 19. GoodAreasShane - Alzarri Joseph (670031) A bit 50/50 for longevity, but still could be an immense cricketer at this level. Very nice pick at this point in the draft. 20. Captain - Roshen Silva (237310) Should really have gone ages ago. Anyone holding a good Test record being picked right now is a great pick. 21. Howe and Dan - Mohammad Hafeez (41434) His form had definitely showed signs of falling apart by the end of his international career; nevertheless he still brings a lot to the table. It's a risk but I can see where it came from. 22. Chewie - Usman Shinwari (697279) The question is where Shinwari's more of a Bumrah (dominant bowler despite not having an incredible FC record) or a Hasan Ali (merely an average bowler on a hot streak). Still even Hasan would be an excellent pick at this point in the draft, and his ODI record right now is ridiculous. Good pick. 23. Dhokchau - Toby Roland Jones (370535) Just a shame he's been so plagued by injury recently, because fully fit he can bowl. Unfortunately his recent record isn't much to write home about which hurts. 24. spark!ptz - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (51469) Certainly the latest he's gone in any current cricket draft. And while he did start showing his age significantly towards the end of his career, he was still doing rather well even after his Test career finished and there's no doubt about his class. It's a bit of a risk but one I can see paying off. Best pick: The picks I liked the most were Rizwan, Unadkat, van Zyl, Joseph and Silva. Best IMO was Roshen. Worst pick: No real stinkers here which is unusual this late in the draft. Weakest I think was Abbott with van Tonder being a massive risk.
Also, I fucking hate Dhoni. The first cpl where I took over a drafted team, Freddy fucking picked Dhoni round 1. Absolute idiot. I've hated Dhoni ever since.
Fuck that draft was ten years ago now haha. Still a silly pick for a 16 man draft. Then again that draft had some absolute shockers.
Pure heart from me... was not willing to lose him to another SA aficionado. Not dissimilar to the Hamza pick. Not even sure if he will be in the main team. Although he can play any position in the top 4. And he will be in the SA test team within 2 years (not that helps now!)
rizwan best pick. classy player held back by sarfaraz existing, and he's taken well to test cricket. excellent pick this late.
