The Hundred 2023: Meet Birmingham Phoenix as Chris Woakes & Issy Wong name players to watch
- Published
Issy Wong (left) and Chris Woakes (right) have told us which players you should keep an eye on this year
The Hundred returns on 1 August, so how are Birmingham Phoenix shaping up before the third season of the competition?
BBC Sport has spoken to a player from their men's and women's teams and worked with data analysts CricViz to assess Phoenix's chances and their key players.
Who are they?
Ground: Edgbaston, Birmingham
Men's captain: Moeen Ali
Men's coach: Daniel Vettori
Women's captain: Ellyse Perry
Women's coach: Ben Sawyer
Previous record: Men: 2021 - runners up; 2022 - fourth; Women: 2021 - third; 2022 - fourth
When are Birmingham Phoenix's fixtures?
Birmingham Phoenix fixtures in the 2023 Hundred | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Team | Date | Time (all times BST) | Venue |
Northern Superchargers | 3 August | Women at 15:00, Men at 18:30 | Clean Slate Headingley |
Trent Rockets | 5 August | Women at 14:30, Men at 18:00 | Edgbaston |
Manchester Originals | 7 August | Women at 15:00, Men at 18:30 | Emirates Old Trafford |
Welsh Fire | 10 August | Women at 15:00, Men at 18:30 | Edgbaston |
Oval Invincibles | 13 August | Women at 14:30, Men at 18:00 | Edgbaston |
Southern Brave | 16 August | Women at 15:00, Men at 18:30 | Ageas Bowl |
Trent Rockets | 19 August | Women at 11:00, Men at 14:30 | Trent Bridge |
London Spirit | 24 August | Women at 15:00, Men at 18:30 | Edgbaston |
BBC coverage: Games in bold (see time column) are live on BBC TV & iPlayer, with every match having ball-by-ball commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds. The BBC Sport website and app will have live text updates, the TV/radio coverage, in-play video clips plus contributions from Hundred super fan community and all the best stats. |
How are they shaping up?
England Test opener Ben Duckett spent the first two years of The Hundred at Welsh Fire
BBC Sport has worked with data analysts CricViz to look at the strengths and weaknesses of each side.
Men's team
Phoenix have the potential to field a fluid batting and bowling line-up with as many as five all-rounders in Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Shadab Khan, Dan Mousley and Benny Howell.
That should allow Phoenix to adapt to conditions with four spinners alongside four pace options in the starting XI - this could become a key advantage at Edgbaston, where spin dominated at times during the T20 Blast.
New signing Ben Duckett joins Moeen and potentially Mousley as left-handers in the Phoenix batting line-up to complement right-handers Will Smeed, Livingstone and Shadab.
Consistently pairing left and right-handers could be crucial in countering spin match-ups as well as taking advantage of lop-sided boundary dimensions that we often see during The Hundred.
Fitness and availability is one factor that has impacted Phoenix previously, particularly on the fast bowling front where the likes of Chris Woakes and Adam Milne have struggled to play consistently, which has led to poor death-over returns at times.
Women's team
Phoenix will be hoping to improve on their near misses from previous editions of The Hundred, after finishing third and fourth.
Retaining fit-to-bowl-again Sophie Devine is a huge plus for Phoenix but losing a rejuvenated Ellyse Perry, who would have led from the front with bat and ball and brought top-class international quality, to a knee injury is a huge blow.
Perry has been replaced by fellow Australia all-rounder Tess Flintoff, 20, while Eve Jones will now captain Phoenix.
England players Amy Jones and Issy Wong provide more quality, with the latter likely to be used as a new-ball option in search of wickets to get the Edgbaston crowd fired up.
Jones offers arguably the best gloves in the game and will likely buy Phoenix some wickets other keepers may not get close to.
Erin Burns will provide controlled slower bowling for the Phoenix and, combined with the quality wrist spin of Scotland's Abtaha Maqsood, will have both bases covered in terms of spin should the Edgbaston wickets offer turn.
Who do the players think you should keep an eye on?
Hannah Baker has also joined Birmingham Phoenix from Welsh Fire
BBC Sport spoke to a player from each men's and women's team and asked them to pick two key players to watch and to consider their chances this year.
Birmingham Phoenix bowler Chris Woakes: "I will go with Ben Duckett. He is a big-money signing, in the top bracket, and he's obviously in a pretty good spot with where he's at in his career. He's playing for England a lot so I'm really excited to see him.
"Then I suppose the local lad, Dan Mousley. He's had a good winter, did well in ILT20 and I've seen him start really well with Warwickshire so he can have a good year and I'm excited for what lays ahead.
"This team has kind of been together for the first two years and there hasn't been too many changes so that will hold us in good stead and hopefully we can play a really good, exciting brand of cricket like we did last year. We've got a good chance and a good team."
Birmingham Phoenix bowler Issy Wong: "I'm going to go for Hannah Baker, she's a young leg-spinner and I reckon she's going to come into her own this year and hopefully add some spark to the Phoenix.
"Hopefully we can build on the last couple of years and take it a couple of steps further. We're obviously disappointed not to have made it through to the eliminator last year and we were disappointed in it in the first year. Hopefully we can go one or two better."
*Wong also picked Australia all-rounder Ellyse Perry, who has been ruled out through injury.
Where will they finish?
Now it's your turn to have your say. Pick how you think the men's and women's group-stage tables will finish and share them on social media using #BBCCricket, external.
Read about the other teams: London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets, Welsh Fire.