Australian T20 League 2019-20 is the ninth edition of the domestic T20 Cricket tournament held in Australia. The tournament is scheduled between December 2019 to February 2020. The number of matches has increased from 59 to 61 from the last season. The Knockout has been revamped into the play-off system.
It is Australia’s mega domestic cricket tournament that is attracting international cricket fans. It is slated to start from 17th Tuesday, December to 8th Saturday, February. The league has eight teams that represent various cities of Australia. They will participate in 56 matches, but the Cricket Australia has shaken up the format for the finals. There will be five matches to crown a team a winner. In its short tenure, the Australian T20 League has garnered millions of fans from around the world.
The tournament follows two types of formats in the group stage matches:
Double round-robin format: In this format, the teams will go against each other twice. As there are a limited number of teams, the Australian T20 League will follow this format.
Knockout format: The teams that fare poorly are knocked out and the remaining teams proceed to the semi-finals.
The Cricket Australia, the local cricket board, introduced five-team final format:
The Eliminator - The teams that finish fourth and fifth will compete on 30th Thursday, January.
The Qualifier – The teams that finish first and second will compete on 31st Friday, January.
The Knock-Out – The team that finishes third will play with the winner from the Eliminator. It will be held on 1st February.
The Challenger – The losing team from the Qualifier will play with the winner of The Knockout on 6th February.
The Final – The winners of the Qualifier and Challenger rounds will go head to head on 8th February.
| Strikers | Heat |
| Hurricanes | Renegades |
| Stars | Scorchers |
| Sixers | Thunder |
Strikers were also known as Southern Redbacks. It all happened in 2011, with the inception of the Australian T20 league. At that time, the captain was the talented South Australian, Michael Klinger. As mentioned earlier, he has one of the best performances as a batsman. As for the coach, it was Darren Berry. He was actually coaching Southern Redbacks but continued his services with the Strikers. Presently, the current coach is the skilled cricketer Jason Gillespie, who has played for Australia. The captain of this team is Travis Head, who is not only a crowd favourite, but also a superb batsman. Strikers was crowned the winner back in 2017-18.
Back in 2011, Heat was founded to represent the beautiful state of Queensland and its bustling city. In the ninth season of the Australian T20 league, Christopher (Chris) Lynn is the captain of the team, who is fired up to lead his team. He is a batsman who would aim for the sixes. The coach of the team is Darren Scott Lehmann. He brings years of experience in coaching at the national level. Closer to home, he coached the IPL teams Deccan Chargers (2009-12) and Kings XI Punjab (2013). He is an astute batsman and a conventional bowler. It will be interesting to see the captain and coach power the Heat to victory. The last time they won the Australian T20 league trophy was in the second season (2012-13).
This team is still to crack the winning formula. They have reached the finals twice (2013 - 14 and 2017 - 18) but went home as runners up. The team was setup in 2011 with the formation of the Australian T20 league and they represent Tasmania. Back then the coach was Allister de Winter and the captain of the inaugural team was the experienced Tim Paine. Fast forward to 2019-20 Australian T20 league, the coach of the Hurricanes is Adam Griffith. He was the assistant at Scorchers and brings that enriching knowledge with him. The captain of the present team is Matthew Wade, who is a phenomenal wicket keeper of all three forms of cricket. He has played in a number of international matches for Australia too. It is time that the coach and the captain steer this team to triumph.
They are the defending champions of the 2018-19 Australian T20 league. Will they retain their tile? The Victoria-based team started off on a rocky bed. When the Australian T20 league was launched, they won only two matches in that season. Back then the captain was Victorian all-rounder Andrew McDonald and the coach was Simon Helmot. Over the years, these roles changed hands and today the captain is the brilliant Aaron Finch – he was part of the original team and has risen to new heights. The coaching is in the hands of Michael Klinger. It will be exciting to see this powerful duo lead the Renegades to win their second tournament.
This team is yet to shine. They have come close but fallen short of winning the title. In the present team, they have international players such as Glen Maxwell, Peter Handscomb, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Steve O'Keefe, Adam Zampa and few others from international teams. Will this be their promising year? It all comes down to the talented captain Glenn Maxwell, who has played brilliantly for Australia. Also, the present coach David Hussey brings with him the experience he has gained from the domestic and international tournaments.
They are leading the charts – the Scorchers have won three times. At one point, they won consecutively, from 2013-15. The present team is guided by the captain, Mitchell Marsh, who has a rich experience in all three formats and played against major international teams. The coach of Scorchers is Adam Voges. His batting average for test matches is 61.87, among batsmen who have finished their career and played a minimum of 20 innings. It is just behind Don Bradman. Most of the team members in the team’s history are Australians, however, they have roped in English, South African, and Pakistani players. Will the Scorchers char the road to victory in the 2019-20 Australian T20 league?
This is the team that had won the first ever tournament but have come close to winning it in a couple of seasons. The longest standing players in this team are Nathan Lyon and Moises Henriques – they have been there from the beginning. Sixers have been featured in four of seven finals series. On two occasions they were playing against Scorchers, and lost both the matches. In this year’s tournament, Moises Henriques is geared to captain the team and Gregory Shipperd is coaching the team for the league. Both of them are prolific players in their field.
This team won the fifth edition of the Australian T20 league, back in 2015-16. They have players such as Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and Jacques Kallis in their squad. In the later years, the performance of the squad dwindled. Can the team’s captain Callum Ferguson and the coach Shane Bond revive the thunder in this team? Get a glimpse of them at the Thunder’s home ground, which is the Giants Stadium.
In 2011, the Cricket Australia set up The Australian T20 league.
Initially, it has six state teams, but it now has eight city-based teams.
A contest was thrown open to Australian designers to come up with a design for the trophy. The Australian public selected the final design.
In 2012, the board wanted to include regional teams such as Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, and Gold Coast. New Zealand was also considered in the expansion, but it has not materialised yet.
Michael Klinger has scored the greatest number of runs, 1947 in all.
Out of the eight teams, six have won the league. Scorchers have won three times and they are one of the toughest teams in the league.
| Year | Winners | Runner Ups | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | Sixers | Scorchers | Sixers won by 7 wickets (3/158) |
| 2012-13 | Heat | Scorchers | Heat won by 34 runs (5/167) |
| 2013-14 | Scorchers | Hurricanes | Scorchers won by 39 runs (4/191) |
| 2014-15 | Scorchers | Sixers | Scorchers won by 4 wickets (6/148) |
| 2015-16 | Thunder | Stars | Thunder won by 3 wickets (7/181) |
| 2016-17 | Scorchers | Sixers | Scorchers won by 9 wickets (1/144) |
| 2017-18 | Strikers | Hurricanes | Strikers won by 25 runs (2/202) |
| 2018-19 | Renegades | Stars | Renegades won by 13 runs (5/145) |
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