Athlai picks Best and Worst Squad Picks CPL 4 (Complete)

spark!ptz
Team name: Revolution CC
Name Rating: F

This team is so soulless and corporate that it has no business at all being called Revolution. This should be called the Regime.


Squad:
priyank panchal
abhimanyu easwaran
hanuma vihari
ross taylor
shiv chanderpaul
sarfraz ahmed
cameron green
vernon philander
imad wasim
kuldeep yadav
mohammed siraj

riley meredith
grant roelofsen
mohammad nawaz (3)
cameron gannon
anamul haque
zulfiqur babar
michael clarke


Squad Depth A

Spark is good at drafts. He knows it, you know it, I know it. He is the targeting computer from the Death Star run. He will always get you close but never quite blow your mind. Look at this set of Test guns, older blokes who will be gun, undervalued blokes, and A team and domestic stars. It makes me sick.

Best Pick: Abhimanyu Easwaran - Round 8
Morgs on Eastwestern: Unsure what to make of this pick - he's had one hot season, but otherwise has been a bit meh. I guess his A-team record will help though, but perhaps not as much as Panchal or Siraj.
Cribb's Best Pick: Hanuma Vihari - Round 3
Morgs on Vihari: Given he can bowl a bit, a pretty decent pick. Has also done well at Test cricket thus far.
Worst Pick: Cameron Green - Round 7
Morgs on Green: A bit of a risk, but if he stays fit will be an immense cricketer at this level. I think this pick makes perfect sense.

There is no joy in looking at Spark's picks. They're all good. They're all justified. Green seemed like he went a little early, like he could've delayed that one a few more rounds. He looks like he will get noob owned but he no doubt has played some stupid Australian league where he scored a shit ton of runs and is h4x because of course he is, fucking Spark picked him.

Top 8 bound. Probable finalist.

 

Chewie
Team name: Pixie Caramels
Name Rating: A+

Easily my favourite name and team (besides my own). Gooooo Chewie!

Squad:
1. Jason Roy / Imam-Ul-Haq
2. Glenn Phillips
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Haris Sohail (6)
5. Fawad Alam
6. Tom Blundell +
7. Scott Kuggeleijn / Shivam Dube (4/5)
8. Dale Steyn (1)
9. Mohammed Shami (3)
10. Usman Shinwari (2)
11. Will Somerville (5/4)

12. Jason Roy / Imam-Ul-Haq
13. Liam Plunkett
14. Kashif Bhatti
15. Shivam Dube / Scott Kuggeleijn
16. Ish Sodhi
17. Akshay Wadkar
18. Henry Cooper

Squad Depth A-

It'd be an A on batting and pace, and like a B or lower on the spinners.

Best Pick: Dale Steyn - Round 3
Morgs on Steyn: Hard to gauge. On paper getting Steyn this late given he only retired a few months back is a dream. Problem is post the 2015 World Cup (which is nearly 5 years ago now!) he was injured 75% of the time and when he was playing he was hardly lighting up trees. At least injury proneness isn't coded into the sim but a riskier pick than what I would've desired given there were several other options available.
Cribb's Best Pick: Pujara - round 2
Morgs on Pujara: Best batsmen left over. Would probably have been looking at him late R1, so a great pick.
Worst Pick:Will Somerville - Round 6
Morgs on Somers: Yeah, I think this was slightly early. Especially given Herath was picked the pick after.

I love how me picking Herath directly after Somerville was mentioned in morgie's write up. Too early by a few rounds on that one but a very good team overall. Chewie definitely subscribes to a drafting style similar to mine and I see a lot of overlap between his team and the players I listed as being interested in with a few variances here and there. His opener strategy seems to be like a different version of one I'd do.

I think there are a few guys in this team that aren't quite pulling their weight and I have zero faith in his spin attack, will be interesting to see if he can trade himself a gun spinner or if he will go all in on a great batting lineup and gun quick attack.

Note: I haven't actually asked Cribb what his best pick here was I just remember he liked the Blundell pick a lot. May change that one. And he did - changed to PUjara

 

Julian
Team name: Rivers of Beer
Name Rating: A-

Truly moving imagery, but what do we call them for short? Beers? Rivers? RoB?

Squad:
1. Colin de Grandhomme
2. Stuart Broad
3. Mayank Agarwal
4. Jonny Bairstow
5. Dilruwan Perera
6. Gary Ballance
7. Mark Wood
8. Glenn Maxwell
9. Joe Mennie
10. Moises Henriques
11. Gautam Gambhir


12. Jonathon Trott
13. Graham Onions
14. Jeet Raval
15. Sean Williams
16. Peter Moor
17. Abdur Rehman
18. Sam Whiteman

Squad Depth: B

The wider squad is pretty solid but CDG was a poor round 1 pick and Broad hasn't been quite good enough to make up for it. I also don't think that Wood is that good at all. I don't think this is top 8 bound but it will beat anyone on its day.

Best Pick: Sean Williams - Round 15
Morgs on Williams: Potentially a very good pick. Strong recent ODI record and can bowl. Maintains a nice FC record too. A lot will depend on the Sri Lanka Tests though.
Cribb's Best Pick: Also Sean Williams but because I refused to change mine from Sean Williams he also admitted Agarwal and Henriques were very good picks so while Cribb picked Sean Williams, lets see what Morgie had to say about those.
Morgs on Agarwal: His Test record is insane. There's admittedly not much depth to it and he's not that proven outside of India but it's a good pick for R3 and someone who may well get a lot more valuable quickly.
Morgs on Henriques: Has been a tad hit and miss in his recent domestic career and his bowling is becoming less and less relevant, but still a good option at this point.
Worst Pick: Gautam Gambhir - Round 11
Morgs on Gambhiring: Picking a BJP politican? For shame. But more seriously, a pretty fair pick at this point, even if the Test runs he scored is ancient history.

If Julian had picked Anderson round 1 and CDG round 2 this team could be B+ IMO. While there is a lot to like about the wider squad there are a couple gaping holes. Namely Gambhir/Raval/Rehman who have far more name value than recent form or numbers to anyway justify their selections. Raval at round 14 was still too early. Middle of the pack bound.

 

Phlegm
Team name: Suspicious Surreptitious Squirts
Name Rating: C

Neither here nor there really. I think the team name used to annoy me, which was no doubt its intention, but Donald Trump is now the President of the USA and everything is meaningless.

Squad:
greg hay
hamish rutherford
kusal mendis
will young
henry nicholls
tom bruce
dinesh karthik
doug bracewell
neil wagner
morne morkel
ajaz patel

jackson bird
matt mcewan
blair tickner
malcolm nofal
srikar bharat
dean brownlie
stephen murdoch

Squad Depth: B

Phlegm's team is the spiritual opposite of Julian's. It's actually better than it looks. If Phlegm actually wanted to be as much of a tryhard as Marcuss, Spark or myself he'd do a bang up job of it but instead he insists on having as ragtag a group of Kiwis and others as possible. Every now and then with Phlegm you see the inner desire to succeed against his own better nature come through. He picks a Kusal Mendis, or a Morne Morkel or most tellingly of all, a Jackson Bird because he KNOWS they will be good, better than any New Zealand option. He with a great degree of accuracy is able to determine the best NZ players and pick them at the appropriate times. In a draft with less Kiwi posters he'd probably be pushing the top 8, but alas, too many other blokes poached good kiwis and his team while solid, isn't excellent.

Best Pick: Matt McEwan - Round 13
Morgs on Matt McEwan: Good pick. Very close to the best Kiwi bowler left over and no-one from the other best domestic competitions really stand out either.
Cribb's Best Pick: Greg Hay - Round dunno
Morgs on :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.
Worst Pick: Jackson Bird - Round 4
Morgs on Bird: Solid pick, and an excellent fit for your attack overall. He's probably not as good as he once was bit mid Round 4 is good value.

Phlegm needs to trade Bird, Bird was a good pick for anyone in round 4 besides him. He isn't going to play him now. Someone please take Bird away from him. There will be enough Kiwi h4x in here to frustrate many a player this season, but some of it is overrated. Bracewell in CWPL was a fluke and it won't happen again. I can't wait till you drop him.

 

Apart from Gazza, lol.

I feel like we’ve drafted better this time around.

 

That was the Farhat review. Lol @ that seam depth.