WRW vs YOR 2nd Match - North Group Prediction

WRW vs YOR Team Previews

Birmingham Bears

The Bears added Moeen Ali and Ed Barnard to their squad from last season, a big plus, and lost out on Adam Hose and Olly Stone. Unfortunately, Moeen Ali and Glenn Maxwell (the overseas gun for the Bears) are not going to be available for this match as they are at the IPL. 

Keep in mind that the Bears finished first in the group stage last season and so are starting with s a strong base of players already.

The Bears also have Hasan Ali in their squad but he picked up a slight injury in the leadup to this game and may not be available for selection. We think Paul Stirling will step into the lineup until the entire squad becomes available. He leads a pretty strong batting lineup that also has Alex Davies, Sam Hain, Jacob Bethell, and Sam Mousley.

Chris Woakes (if made available by England) will step into the lineup as the all-rounder at 7.

A number of the bowlers for the Bears can score runs and that gives them a lot of depth.

Jake Lintott and Danny Briggs are two excellent spinners to have in the lineup. They will effectively control the middle order and play a massive role. Hasan Ali will also have to lead the pace attack now that Ollie Stone (the best Bears bowler by a margin) has left the squad. 

We like the squad that the Bears have put together. It gives them a lot of options to combat both spin and pace while attacking the opposition with quality bowlers of their own. Not having Moeen Ali and Glenn Maxwell is a massive loss but that is something that most teams in the T20 Blast will have to contend with.

This will be a tough team to beat at home.

Yorkshire

Yorkshire finished fourth in the North Group of the T20 Blast last season and eventually ended up losing in the semis. This season, they have added Matt Milnes, Ben Mike, Mickey Edwards, and Jafer Chohan to the group while getting rid of Tom Kohler-Cadmore, David Willey, Matthew Waite, and Tom Loten.

Losing Kohler-Cadmore and Willey is a massive loss and not easy to compensate for. 

David Wiese and Shan Masood are the overseas players, both good choices in our opinion. Wiese is quite underrated as a six-hitter and bowler while Shan Masood can the consistent batting force around which the rest of the team plays. 

For Yorkshire, player availability is always a massive problem. Harry Brook, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, and Adil Rashid are all a part of the squad but neither one of them will play this match. In fact, with the Test matches around, only Adil Rashid will really play a part this season (once he returns from the IPL).

Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan, Jonathan Tatrersall, and Jordan Thompson are the players that will lead the batting lineup. A lot of impressive options showing the depth that is still present in Yorkshire cricket.

The lineup is a bit left-hander and top-order heavy but the depth is also not bad. 

The bolwing lineup seems to be a bit on the weaker side, especially without Adil Rashid being available. Jordan Thompson and Matthew Revis will lead the attack with support from Dom Bess and Matthew Fisher. There is no real specialist death-bowler in the lineup and we think defending targets is going to be tough for Yorkshire.