Jan 26: Melbourne Stars vs Sydney Sixers, Melbourne

Pro Tip: The average score in the last ten games while batting first is 182. Since the pitches have been supporting batsmen recently make sure to include a lot of batsmen.

Our XI: Marcus Stoinis, Nick Larkin, Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa, Josh Philippe, Moises Henriques, Jordan Silk, Daniel Christian, Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott.

Substitutes: Hilton Cartwright, Nic Maddinson, Daniel Hughes, Carlos Brathwaite

Player Availability: Steve O'Keefe missed the last game due to a niggle and his participation is in doubt for this game.

We might not always be able to tip you off about late injury (or other relevant) updates, so please finalise your team after the toss.

Captain: Moises Henriques

Henriques, who recently had a good limited-overs series against India, has carried on that form into the BBL too scoring a quickfire 56 off 35 balls and 43 off 25 balls. He is one of the top ten run-scorers in BBL history with 1844 runs in 84 games. If he is fit enough to bowl, he can get you additional points for his bowling too.

Vice-captain: Josh Philippe

With 453 runs in 13 games at an impressive strike rate of 150, Philippe is the second highest run-scorer in this season. His middle overs strike rate of 158.71 is higher than his powerplay strike rate which suggests that once he settles in, he is very hard to stop.

Hot Picks

Marcus Stoinis: The Stars' opener Stoinis has been the leading run-scorer since the 2018-19 BBL season, with 1622 runs in 42 games at an average of 47.70. Now that he is fit to bowl too, expect points from his wickets as well. He is the second-highest run-scorer at this venue with 807 runs in 28 games at an average of 36.68.

Nathan Coulter-Nile: Coulter-Nile has been hampered by injuries in the ongoing edition, but in five games, he has picked up ten wickets at an average of 13.70. He bowled one of the most economical spells in BBL10 too, with figures of 3.5-0-10-4 against the Heat. He can contribute some points to your 11 with his batting abilities too.

Ben Dwarshuis: Although he has missed a handful of games for Sixers in this season of the BBL, he is the leading wicket-taker for them with 16 strikes in just ten games at an average of 18.68. He has taken 14 wickets in 11 games against the Stars, one of his favourite BBL opponents.

Differential Picks

Sean Abbott: The BBL veteran after missing almost the entire tournament for his national commitments, did come back with a bang picking up the important wickets of Wade and Short in the last game. He became only the second bowler in BBL history to pick up 100 wickets when he took Wade's wicket in the last game. His strike rate of 14.9 is the best among the top 15 wicket-takers of the tournament.

Nick Larkin: Nick Larkin has been having a breakout season with the bat especially in the last three games where he recorded scores of 43(32), 61*(47) and 70(44). Overall, he has scored 264 runs in nine innings at an average of 44. At the MCG, he has scored 277 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 140.60.

Alternate Scenarios

Hilton Cartwright can replace the Stars skipper Maxwell who has been having a lean patch recently.
Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile are the alternate captaincy options.