BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 03: Samuel Badree of the Heat celebrates taking the wicket of Aiden Blizzard of the Thunder during the Big Bash League match between the Brisbane Heat and the Sydney Thunder at The Gabba on January 3, 2016 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Brisbane Heat coach Daniel Vettori believes his bowlers have the ability to back up his star-studded batting line-up throughout the BBL06 season.
Chris Lynn, Alex Ross, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Reardon, Ben Cutting and captain Brendon McCullum all have the ability to dominate a game with the bat, but question marks have been raised over their bowlers ahead of their opening match against the Strikers in Adelaide on Wednesday night.
Spinner Samuel Badree will lead the Heat's attack this season, and Vettori knows that Badree, along with teammates Jason Floros and Andrew Fekete, can provide a more-than-capable bowling performance each and every night.
“I think that’s what a lot of people have been talking about – the discrepancy between our bowling and batting,” Vettori said on Melbourne radio station SEN.
“But I think we’re going into it with a different mindset. When you actually dig through those numbers of the bowlers that we have, particularly led by Sam Badree, who has been phenomenal for a long period of time, we think we’ve got a reasonable attack.
“We’ll probably have a heavy emphasis on the spin department with Jason Floros and Mitchell Swepson. Jack Wildermuth is a guy who’s had a really good start to the first-class season and this is his first taste of T20, but he’s got a pretty good brain on for a young guy.
“(Pace bowlers Mark) Steketee and (Andrew) Fekete have proven themselves as well, so we really believe we’ve got enough there to complement what we’ve got going on with the batting line-up.”
Young spinner Mitchell Swepson will also give Vettori some bowling depth, and has already made appearances for Australia A earlier in 2016.
“He played a couple of games for us last year. We saw him early on and liked what we saw and he’s gone from strength to strength,” Vettori said on Swepson.
“He hasn’t stopped bowling for a year and a bit since the last Big Bash with the amount of teams he’s made.
“He’s a big turner of the ball and I know Warnie (Australia legend Shane Warne) has seen him a few times and been really impressed and there’s probably no higher compliment.”