Melbourne Stars

Melbourne Stars

Melbourne Stars are a Melbourne, Australia-based professional T20 franchise that competes in the Big Bash League (BBL) since its start from 2011-12. They use Melbourne Cricket Ground (the MCG) as their home ground with a capacity of over 100,000. Along with MCG, they occasionally use Metricon Stadium and Junction Oval, Moe as secondary home grounds.

They have finished runners-up thrice, and semi-finalists five times, but have yet to touch the silverware. They came close to winning the title in the 2018-19 season only to lose to their city-based rivals Melbourne Renegades by 13 runs. Apart from qualifying for the playoffs seven times of the 10 seasons, they have also received a ‘wooden spoon’ for finishing last in the 2017-18 BBL season.
 

Melbourne Stars have played 111 BBL matches so far, second-most by any team below Perth Scorchers. In 111, the Stars have tasted victory 57 times. With a 52.27% winning rate, they are the fourth most successful franchise in the BBL. After finishing runners-up in the 8th and the 9th season of the BBL, Melbourne stars ended up being seventh in the last season. They won 5 out of 14 games in the BBL|10 and are currently on a three-game losing streak.

The Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been leading the team since 2018-19. He has a winning rate of 61.76%. Former Australian international David Hussey has been in the coaching shoes since 2019. The Maxwell led team would like to break the knockouts hoodoo to get their hand on the championship for the first time in BBL|11.

Melbourne Stars Fixtures

Melbourne Stars are set to travel to Sydney to play their first match of the BBL|11 season against the Sydney Sixers. It will be a tough start for the Melbourne Stars as they have lost their last five games against the Sixers including the final of BBL|9. Overall, the Stars have just a 44% win rate against Sixers with 7 wins and 9 losses in 16 games.

When is the Next Melbourne Stars Match?

Melbourne Stars will then play home and away matches against Sydney Thunder. The Stars will be looking forward to playing against the Thunder with whom they have the best track record in recent games. Melbourne Stars have 5 victories in the last 6 games against the Sydney Thunder. Overall, they have a 53% win rate against the Thunder.

The Stars will then host the Sydney Sixers before going to play back-to-back away games against Hobart Hurricanes, Brisbane Heat, and Perth Scorchers. Out of these, they have the best record against Hobart Hurricanes with 67% wins while the worst is against Brisbane Heat with just 36% wins.

On the second eve of 2022, they will host Perth Scorchers at home against whom they have a 57.14% winning rate at home. The fixtures in 2022 will be easier for Melbourne Stars as they will be playing six out of seven games in Melbourne.
 

The Melbourne Stars will play the derby games against the Melbourne Renegades on 3rd and 13th Jan. Among all the teams in BBL, Stars have the best record against their city rivals. Out of 20 games played between these two, Melbourne Stars have a win percentage of 70% with 14 wins and 6 losses.

In recent years, they have overpowered their rivals thrice in the last four games. Overall, Melbourne Stars have a better track record against the Renegades, Hurricanes and Thunder to some extent. Their recent emergence under the captaincy of Glenn Maxwell is one inch short of their first BBL trophy. Will this be the season for the Stars to finally touch the BBL trophy?

Melbourne Stars Team

No one has had as many heartbreaks as Melbourne Stars. Out of ten seasons of Big Bash League, Melbourne Stars have finished runners-up three times and have crashed out in semis for five times. But the hunger for getting their hands on the silverware is what makes them unique.

Last season, Melbourne Stars had an uncharacteristically poor season. Stars finished seventh in bbl 2020-21 season just above their city rivals Melbourne Renegades. But they are primed to bounce back with the quality of squad they have on the roster.

Glenn Maxwell is set to lead the stars once again for the fourth season along with David Hussey as the head coach. Maxwell, who is having a great form since the India series at the beginning of the year, will be playing a crucial role in the Stars’ game plan.

Stars have two more players from Australia’s ICC T20 World Cup-winning team – Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa. The three newly crowned champions are set to play the entire season after missing the international berths in The Ashes.

Peter Neville will be taking the gloves for Stars with Seb Gotch sidelined with a finger injury. Stars have added ex-Brisbane Heat player Joe Burns to their roaster to strengthen the top-order. The newly added Joe Clarke and Hilton Cartwright will have a tough task to fill the shoes of missing West Indian power hitters Andre Fletcher and Nicholas Pooran.

Melbourne Stars have worked on boosting their spin unit this season. Afghanistan leg-spinner Qais Ahmed and talented Pakistani left-arm wrist spinner Syed Faridoun could work with Adam Zampa throughout the season.

The only flaw for Stars is that they don’t have a star-studded pace unit. They will rely on the experienced Nathan Coulter-Nile and Billy Stanlake to take the emerging players like Liam Hatcher, Sam Elliot, and Brody Couch along with them. With skipper Glenn Maxwell and Nathan Coulter-Nile taking the role of all-rounders, Stars can expect to finally land their hands on the missing silverware.

Melbourne Stars Players

The Melbourne Stars have some outstanding players up their sleeves for the coming edition of the BBL|11. Here we look at some of the names in the Melbourne Stars squad that could play a major role for them in the season.

Glenn Maxwell – There is no denying that Melbourne Stars’ success will be dependent on Glenn Maxwell’s form. Maxwell is currently having the form of his life. Maxwell rattled the Indian ODI bowling unit at the end of the last year with 167 runs scored in just three games at a strike rate of 194.18. He then finished the IPL season for Royal Challengers Bangalore with 513 runs at an average of 42.75 and a strike rate of 144.10. His retention by RCB is living proof that nobody wants to lose Maxwell. Added to these heroics, Maxwell is the third leading run-scorer of the Big Bash League.

Marcus Stoinis – Marcus Stoinis was Stars’ leading run-scorer last season. Stoinis finished BBL 2020-21 with 396 runs at a strike rate of 142.44. The run-machine is just two places below (fifth) Maxwell in Big Bash League’s leading run-scorer list. Stoinis also played a key role in Australia’s World T20 Cup-winning campaign. Stars will enjoy a safe middle-order with Stoinis on board.

Adam Zampa – Adam Zampa was criticized earlier for giving IPL a miss before the T20 World Cup. But he proved his doubters wrong at the end of the successful World Cup. Zampa was the second leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 13 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 12.07 and a fifer. He gave less than 6 runs every over throughout the campaign.

With the presence of World Cup winning heroes, Stars will be looking forward to Liam Hatcher to have his breakout season.

Melbourne Stars WBBL

Melbourne Stars Women is the women’s BBL Franchise from Melbourne competing in the Women’s Big Bash League WBBL since 2015-16. After finishing in the bottom half for the first five seasons, the Melbourne Stars Women finished runners-up in the last WBBL. In the final, they lost to Sydney Thunder Women by 7 wickets while defending 87 runs.

Australian International Meg Lanning who has been a part of the franchise since the start finished the top run-scorer in the first two seasons with more than 500 runs. Melbourne Stars Women have a 42.68% winning record in WBBL.

Meg Lanning will continue leading the team for her fourth season with Jarred Loughman as the head coach in pursuit of their first BBL title.