Rovman Powell's Barbados Royals, one of two as yet unbeaten teams in CPL 2024 along with defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors, will be at full strength for their home leg, which kicks off against Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in Bridgetown on September 11.
The South African pair of David Miller and Keshav Maharaj has linked up with the side while batter Alick Athanaze has recovered from the finger injury that had put him out of Royals' game against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre last week. With Maharaj back and available until the end of the season along with Miller - both players were rested for the upcoming UAE tour where South Africa will face Afghanistan and Ireland in white-ball games - Dunith Wellalage, the Sri Lanka allrounder who was picked by Royals as a replacement player, has returned home.
Shamarh Brooks, who was originally selected as a temporary replacement for Miller, however, will continue to stay with the squad as cover.
"We've got David Miller and Kesh Maharaj, and we've got our full complement of five overseas players," Royals head coach Trevor Penney said on the eve of their first home game of the season, against Falcons. "Looks like Alick Athanaze is fit for selection as well. So it will definitely be a different team and will be a good headache to have with some of the youngsters that have come in and played really well as well. So we will have a selection meeting later and will come up with the team for tomorrow.
"Alick has been playing for West Indies. He's an up-and-coming batsman that really needs to play in our side. It's going to be up for debate in our selection meeting."
Royals have secured contrasting wins in contrasting conditions so far in CPL 2024. In their first game, on a North Sound pitch that got better for batting, Royals overhauled 146 with plenty to spare while in their second, they scrapped to victory with just one ball to spare on a used Basseterre surface. Bridgetown has had some rain in the lead-up to Royals' home leg but their captain Powell suggested that has not affected their preparation.
"I think, to be honest, it [Barbados] has one of the better conditions I've seen," Powell said. "The practice wickets were good and the guys told me that the wickets in the middle are good. They had a camp here before we started the CPL, so cricket is being played on the wicket."
Royals finally have all their five overseas players available for selection and Powell hoped that their franchise T20 experience will serve them well. Miller and Maharaj are familiar faces already at the Royals set-up. While Miller had played his part in Royals' run to the final in CPL 2022 and had even captained Paarl Royals in the SA20, Maharaj has represented Royals in the IPL.
"This is just a top-up," Powell said. "A lot of the guys have been playing franchise cricket around the world. So, these training sessions are just top-ups - just to get some blood flowing, hit a few balls in the middle and as a bowling group see if we can correct a few errors that we have made in the past few games."
Maharaj will slot into Wellalage's role and will work with mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana, whose economy rate of 4.62 is currently the best among all bowlers who have bowled at least 24 balls this CPL. With the pitches in the region expected to slow down even further as the tournament progresses, Powell spoke about the impact the spinners could have on the CPL. With slower-ball specialist Naveen-ul-Haq and offspin-bowling allrounder Rahkeem Cornwall also pitching in with the ball, Royals haven't even needed Nyeem Young's medium-pace at all across two matches.
"Bowlers win tournaments and batters win games," Powell had said after the win against the Patriots. "I think we have a pretty good overseas spin department and that is very, very important. In the Caribbean, quality spinners sometimes become difficult to bat [against]. But having said that, we have fast bowlers that are there to back them up."
Jones to stay at the CPL; Gous to leave for international duty
Aaron Jones, the USA vice-captain who made a splash during the T20 World Cup earlier this year, will stay with St Lucia Kings for the rest of the CPL while his national team-mate Andries Gous is set to leave the Trinbago Knight Riders squad for the upcoming ICC CWC League ODI series in Namibia.
Jones is in action in the CPL as a local player through his Barbados passport while the South Africa-born Gous slotted in as a temporary replacement for Tim David at TKR. As such, Gous was signed up for just four games and is now in line for his ODI debut. David, meanwhile, is set to link up with TKR and reunite with his Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard, who is the TKR captain in the CPL, after participating in three T20Is in England.
Hassan Khan replaces Fakhar Zaman at Falcons
Falcons have brought in allrounder Hassan Khan as a replacement for Fakhar Zaman for the rest of CPL 2024. Fakhar has returned home for the the Champions One-day Cup, Pakistan's newer version of the domestic 50-over competition, which will run from September 12 to 29, clashing with the CPL.
Hassan, 25, was born in Karachi and had captained Pakistan in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand before he moved to the USA. A left-arm spinner and a right-hand batter, Hassan was the highest wicket-taker for San Francisco Unicorns in MLC 2024 with ten strikes in nine matches at an economy rate of 7.09.
8.10pm GMT: The story was updated after Hassan Khan joined Falcons' squad in Barbados