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Australia’s domestic 50-over competition should be star-studded when it starts on Monday, with all international players likely to be available due to the cancellation of the Test tour of Bangladesh.
Security concerns forced Australia to abandon the tour, with the 15 players who were in the Test squad now to take part in the local tournament.
The silver lining in the Bangladesh situation is that the standard of this year’s one-day tournament should be phenomenally high.
Due to busy international schedules in the modern era, rarely have cricket lovers had the chance to watch Australia’s best players compete against each other for their states.
The likes of Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, David Warner and Shane Watson have made limited appearances in the domestic game the past few summers.
From this week we should get to see some of the most exciting interstate battles since Mark Waugh was using his feet to Shane Warne, and Glenn McGrath was bouncing Ricky Ponting.
Will Warner try to smash Johnson out of the attack in the opening overs? Will Maxwell target Nathan Lyon with his conventional and reverse sweeps? Will Faulkner get after Starc in the final 10?
The biggest question of all is: which team deserves to be favourites now that the squads have changed so dramatically?
New South Wales had five players in the Test squad to tour Bangladesh, Western Australia had four, and Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria had two each.
Assuming all of the 15 Test squad members are available, these are the incredibly strong starting XIs we could see from the six states this week:
NSW
1. Shane Watson
2. David Warner
3. Ed Cowan
4. Steve Smith
5. Ryan Carters
6. Moises Henriques
7. Peter Nevill
8. Mitchell Starc
9. Gurinder Sandhu
10. Josh Hazlewood
11. Nathan Lyon
Western Australia
1. Michael Klinger
2. Shaun Marsh
3. Adam Voges
4. Mitchell Marsh
5. Ashton Turner
6. Sam Whiteman
7. Ashton Agar
8. Mitchell Johnson
9. Nathan Coulter-Nile
10. Joel Paris
11. Jason Behrendorff
Victoria
1. Aaron Finch
2. Matt Wade
3. Marcus Stoinis
4. Cameron White
5. Peter Handscomb
6. Glenn Maxwell
7. Daniel Christian
8. James Pattinson
9. Clint McKay
10. Peter Siddle
11. Jon Holland
Queensland
1. Usman Khawaja
2. Chris Hartley
3. Joe Burns
4. Peter Forrest
5. Nathan Reardon
6. James Hopes
7. Simon Milenko
8. Ben Cutting
9. Michael Neser
10. Cameron Boyce
11. Luke Feldman
Tasmania
1. Ben Dunk
2. Tim Paine
3. Alex Doolan
4. Jonathan Wells
5. George Bailey
6. Jordan Silk
7. James Faulkner
8. Evan Gulbis
9. Xavier Doherty
10. Andrew Fekete
11. Jackson Bird
South Australia
1. Travis Head
2. Tim Ludeman
3. Tom Cooper
4. Callum Ferguson
5. Alex Ross
6. Jake Lehmann
7. Alex Gregory
8. Adam Zampa
9. Kane Richardson
10. Gary Putland
11. Daniel Worrall
Looking at those sides, WA, NSW, Victoria and Queensland all have intimidating line-ups.
Reigning champions the Warriors have an awesome top order, incredible pace power and a good range of bowling options.
NSW’s side is arguably as good as any international team bar New Zealand, South Africa and India, even without the injured Pat Cummins. The Blues have a perfect blend of power and touch in their batting and a well-rounded attack, spearheaded by the best limited-overs bowler in the world in Starc.
Victoria had a disappointing 50-over campaign last summer but with the power-packed side listed above they surely will be better this season.
Tasmania will be greatly strengthened by the inclusions of scheduled Test tourists James Faulkner and Andrew Fekete. The supreme all-rounder in ODI cricket, Faulkner will have a huge say in whether Tasmania can compete with the more fancied teams.
Queensland’s top order was set to be hamstrung by the losses to the Test squad of Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns. But with that pair joining talented keeper-batsman Chris Hartley in the top order, Queensland’s batting looks in good nick.
South Australia have the weakest side on paper and it’s hard to see them challenging the likes of NSW or WA.
The same goes for the new kids on the turf, the Cricket Australia XI, a team packed with rookies who will be intriguing to watch but who look set to be bullied.
The influx of international players for reigning champions WA and last year’s losing finalists NSW will make those two teams strong favourites to claim the title.
Whoever wins, it promises to be one of the most watchable domestic cricket competitions of the modern era.