Global T20 Canada: All you need to know about Vancouver Knights

General Overview

Led by the charismatic Chris Gayle, expect the Knights to be like the big Jamaican on the field. Entertaining, flashy and imposing, that is the stuff Vancouver's cricket franchise, named after the region's professional basketball team, is made of. In their side, accompanying the global T20 superstars are some untested regional talents.

With rookies from Guyana, USA and Canada, Knights will be banking on them to show their skills on the big stage as a follow-up show to the bigger personalities in the side. Andre Russell's good form is a beacon of hope for a side that looks a little off on batting and bowling depth. Although, if in form, he can do more than enough to make up for it.

Afghanistan born, Victoria-based spinner Fawad Ahmed is an intriguing prospect in the side. While he does add to the side the much-required wrist-spinning skills in the game of modern Twenty20, he is not known for taking the unorthodox route, or even some sort of reliance on spinning variations as the leggies around the world tend to do.

Instead, his subtle changeups in trajectory and lengths will be equally important when the matches will be played on the small dimensions of the Maple Cricket Club.

Gayle's captaincy will be another defining element in how Vancouver Knights fare. Though known to be a laid-back character, he is seen, especially in the Caribbean Premier League, a very involved leader.

His strategies are marked by proactive undertones and in a bid to utilise his side's resources to the fullest, he does not shy while using his own underrated bowling skills to the fullest. Personally, in the last stages of his career, he will look to dominate with the bat to stamp his authority further on the format that he has excelled in, more than any cricketer ever.

Team Schedule

Squad

Big Bash League - Melbourne Renegades v Melbourne Stars

Chris Gayle (c)

Andre Russell

Evin Lewis

Tim Southee

Chadwick Walton

Fawad Ahmed

Babar Hayat

Sheldon Cottrell

Saad Bin Zafar

Ruvindu Gunasekera

Srimantha Wijeratne

Kamau Leverock

Steven Jacobs

Salman Nazar

Rassie van der Dussen

Jeremy Gordon

Strengths

The three most destructive Caribbean cricketers uniting together can lead only to carnage. It is not just the trio of Chris Gayle, fellow opener Evil Lewis and Andre Russell who can set stage on fire, the prominent markings of the layout of the Knights seem to be vested in the fact that they have picked format specialists.

Many believed that the Universe Boss, aged 38, was done as a batsman and all of a sudden he served dashing replies in the IPL, famously hitting SunRisers Hyderabad's Rashid Khan all over the park en-route to a mind-boggling 21st century in a format, where achieving the feat once or twice in career seems remarkable.

To add to that, Tim Southee is a very good operator in this format, he can land yorkers with special spite for toes and can swing the ball when new to trouble the openers. Oh, and he can tonk it out of the park if need be. Chadwick Walton, behind the wickets and at the top order, is another specialist who understands and responds to the specific demands of the format.

Weaknesses

While strong on specialists, the Knights seem to have gotten their team structure wrong. Babar Hayat, howsoever talented, has no notable company in the middle order. Should they run into an on-song pair of opening fast bowlers on any day, proceedings will turn into a slippery slide of hopelessness as there is no presence customized to bat in the intermediate stages of the innings.

After a decade and a half of T20 cricket, teams ought to have realized that the ideology of starting and finishing the innings with a bang is no more relevant than outdated stereotypes. The middle phase is the most crucial part as this is where teams often switch to slow accumulation modes rather than keeping up the intensity to set up a platform for the finish.

Season Prediction

While a few individual names do stand out in the side, the layout of the side does not exactly point to world beaters. Other than Ruvindu Gunasekara, they are short on local talent as well and will probably struggle to make it to the playoffs. Their over-reliance on the big names is going to hurt them given Chris Gayle's ease of going into a frustrating run of underperformances.

There might be a match or two where all these players hit their stride together and play some exciting cricket, but as a unit they won't be able to make much far into the tournament.