Western Storm blend youthful exuberance with the power of experience to mount another title charge

KSL TEAM GUIDE: Storm will be looking to go one better than their semi-final defeat to the Surrey Stars in last year's competition

Overseas players: Rachel Priest (New Zealand), Smriti Mandhana (India), Deepti Sharma (India)

Titles: 1 (2017)

Finals Days: 3

Coach: Long-serving Trevor Griffin, who guided Storm to the title in 2017, is back for another season after returning from a winter spent working Down Under with Sydney Thunder. Cardiff MCCU bowling coach Mark O'Leary will provide a new dimension after joining the backroom team for the first time this summer.

Captain: England World Cup winning skipper and top-order batsman Heather Knight will lead the side for a fourth season. The first woman to score 50 and take five wickets in a women's one-day international, Knight is one of the most consistent performers in KIA Super League cricket. Hugely experienced, her leadership on the field and tactical nous will afford Storm a crucial edge.

Past performances

Western Storm will be looking to go one better than their semi-final defeat to the Surrey Stars in last year’s competition.

After falling an agonising nine runs short of getting to last year’s final, Western Storm will look to use their mix of experience and youth to come out on top in the 2019 KSL.

Storm finished runners-up in the 2016 KSL and were champions in the 2017 KSL. Thus in 2018 they became the only KSL team to qualify for all three Finals Days since the launch of the competition.

^{Smriti Mandhana}

Players to watch

Without a doubt, Storm’s key players to watch are India’s Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma.

Mandhana was the player of the tournament and leading run scorer in last year’s KSL where she scored 421 runs in 10 matches at an average of 60.1.

Her explosive strike-rate of 175 and power hitting played a significant role in Western Storm’s dominance in the group-stages last season which took them to Finals Day.

The 22-year-old is also currently ranked No.1 in the ICC ODI batting rankings and No.3 in T20Is. This shows her great international dominance and her international experience too will be valuable to Western Storm’s chances of a successful KSL.

Allrounder Sharma has established herself as India’s frontline spinner and is second in the ICC ODI allrounder rankings.

Although only 21 years old, Sharma has played 30 IT20s for India, taking 28 wickets at an average of 22.92. She also averages 41.81 with the bat in ODI cricket, form that she will hope to take into the T20 format for Western Storm.

Strengths

The greatest strength for Western Storm is their mix of experience and youth.

A number of Storm’s players have several years of international experience, including captain Knight and her England teammate and strike bowler Anya Shrubsole.

Both know what it takes to play in high-pressure einvornments and are also 2017 World Cup winners.

Storm also have a number of young players in their squad that have already made significant contributions to their side's success over the previous KSL seasons. Both Freya Davies and Danielle Gibson have performed consistently in the pace department and have shown great maturity on one of the biggest stages in women’s cricket.

^{Captain Heather Knight and coach Trevor Griffin}

Weaknesses

Western Storm’s main weakness is a tendency to collapse in the middle order.

Last season Storm regularly got off to a strong start due to the power hitting of Mandhana and Rachel Priest. However, on a handful of occasions that momentum was short lived.

Chances

As Western Storm have made the Finals Day every year so far, it is highly likely they will do so again this year.

With a relatively unchanged team and strengthened by the signing of Deepti Sharma, Storm will be looking to get their hands on the trophy once again – and they’ll be one of the favourites to do so.

Did you know?

Opening batter and wicketkeeper Rachel Priest can ride a unicycle!

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