St Kitts and Nevis Patriots are the youngest team in the Caribbean Premier League. They started functioning in 2015 once Antigua Hawksbills became defunct. They finished sixth in their first two seasons but have come up with pretty good performances since 2017, having qualified for the playoffs in all of the last three editions.
Claim to Fame: Runners-up (2017), Play-offs (2018, 2019)
Coach: Courtney Walsh
Captain: Rayad Emrit
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots Squad for CPL 2020:
Chris Lynn, Ben Dunk, Evin Lewis, Nick Kelly, Sohail Tanvir, Ish Sodhi, Sheldon Cottrell, Denesh Ramdin, Rayad Emrit, Imran Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Joshua Da Silva, Dominic Drakes, Colin Archibald, Jon Russ Jaggesar, Jahmar Hamilton
Probable Playing XI
Chris Lynn, Evin Lewis, Denesh Ramdin (wk) Ben Dunk, Joshua Da Silva/Jahmar Hamilton, Sohail Tanvir/Nick Kelly, Imran Khan, Ish Sodhi, Rayad Emrit [C], Sheldon Cottrell, Alzarri Joseph
Strengths
Strong Top four
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots have one of the best opening pairs in the CPL this year. On one side, there is their highly experienced Australian recruit Chris Lynn — he has 742 CPL runs to his name at a good average of 27.48. On the other side, there is the seasoned Caribbean batsman Evin Lewis, who has over 1500 CPL runs to his name at a similar average to that of Lynn as well. At No.3, they have wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin who specializes in anchoring role. He has a pretty good CPL average of 31.82 with over 1200 runs to his name as well.
Slotting at No.4 will be another Australian import, Ben Dunk. He has been one of the best T20 batsmen in the world as far as the last one year or so is considered. Dunk has amassed 1217 T20 runs since 2019 at an excellent average and strike-rate of 32.89 and 144.02 respectively. He was also the third highest scorer in the Pakistan Super League this year. Dunk amassed 266 runs during the tournament at an outstanding average of 53.20.
Excellent Pace Battery
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots have one of the best pace attacks in the league this year. Sheldon Cottrell is one of the best left-arm seamers in shorter formats now. He is the fifth highest wicket-taker in CPL history as well. Cottrell has 69 CPL wickets to his name at an excellent strike-rate of 15.7 and economy rate of 7.37. Alzarri Joseph is one of the best young pacers going around as well. He featured in nine matches last season and picked up an equal number of wickets at a decent economy rate of 7.75.
There is skipper Rayad Emrit as well, who is one of the most experienced players in CPL history. He is third on the list of most wickets in CPL with a total tally of 85 wickets at a strike-rate of 17.9. And the highly experienced Sohail Tanvir just adds more depth to their fast bowling department. He is coming into this competition on the back of a successful PSL 2020 campaign during which he picked up 10 wickets at an excellent economy rate of 6.80.
Weaknesses/Issues
Middle-order inexperience and imbalance
Positions 5, 6 and 7 in St Kitts’ batting lineup look quite inexperienced and out of balance. Either of Joshua Da Silva or Jahmar Hamilton could slot in at No.5 or 6 depending on the situation. But both of them have been top-order batsmen for a major part of their careers and hence, don’t quite fit into this role. Powerhitting isn’t their forte as well, which is a major demand for players batting at this position.
Kiwi import Nick Kelly can slot into the lineup at No.5 but his place could force an experienced pacer like Sohail Tanvir to sit out. That will rob the team of a dependable bowler and hence, it remains to be seen what the management decides. The No.7 slot is also held by a player who is majorly a bowler. He doesn’t specialize in this role with the bat either and that is another area of concern for the team.
Lack of quality all-rounders
Most of the CPL teams have quality all-rounders and that brings a lot of balance and stability to the lineup. But St Kitts and Nevis Patriots don’t have that luxury. Sohail Tanvir and Imran Khan are the players who come closest to being called all-rounders in the squad. But their batting isn’t as good and probably don’t meet the demands of a No.6 or 7 role. There is the young Dominic Drakes in the reserves too, but he is also a bowler first and his inexperience means that he might not get enough games as well.
Over-dependece on Ish Sodhi
With the tournament going to be played across only two venues, almost all teams have stacked their squad up with multiple spinners of high quality. However, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, surprisingly, have opted to go for Kiwi leg-spinner Ish Sodhi only. Local player Imran Khan is another spinner to support Sodhi from the other end. But there is hardly any other spinner to look up to in the squad apart from these two. An injury to either of them during the course of the tournament might cost them big.
Expected Results in CPL 2020
A lot depends on their top four and the pacers. The lack of quality players of spin bowling might be an issue in the back end of the tournament. However, if players like Lynn, Lewis and Dunk click properly with the bat, qualifying for the playoffs might not be an issue at all.