Briggs' maiden BBL stint: A reward and an opportunity

Considering that Danny Briggs has the most wickets in domestic English T20 cricket history, it may strike some as surprising that his stint with Adelaide Strikers in this season's Big Bash will be his first foray into T20 franchise cricket.

The left-arm spinner has taken 186 wickets in 169 matches across his career and concedes a positively miserly 7.21 runs an over and yet, before this winter, no franchise team in any competition around the world had taken a punt on him.. In recent years, he entered a couple of drafts but was not picked up and he had not really had any other interest either. Given how impressive Briggs' record is, it was a gap on his CV that was becoming increasingly difficult to explain.

Briggs himself thinks it is because many T20 competitions are played in the subcontinent and they tend to have a proliferation of local finger spinners to choose from, reducing the opportunities for overseas slow bowlers. Perhaps his relative lack of batting prowess has played a part too. Despite being good enough to score a first-class hundred, Briggs bats at number nine or ten in T20 cricket, which has perhaps made him less attractive to franchise teams compared to the likes of Liam Dawson and Samit Patel, left-arm spinners who also bat higher up.

Thankfully for Briggs, though, his time has come this winter. Jason Gillespie, the Strikers' head coach, worked with him for three seasons at Sussex and that played a large part in his signing while the increased number of overseas spots each team can field this season, from two to three, has opened up more opportunities. Briggs, who announced he was moving to Warwickshire from next season, will link up with his former Sussex teammates Rashid Khan and Phil Salt in Adelaide.

Without the ability to turn the ball both ways, as a wrist spinner like Khan can, Briggs has been able to maintain his returns through a combination of subtle changes in pace, angles and length and constantly trying to predict what a batsman will do next. He believes he is bowling as well as he ever has done. "Experience is playing a part in that," he tells Cricbuzz. "You just have to read the game and the more games you play the quicker and better you are doing it."

He learnt from former New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori how to bowl his deliveries aggressively while defending with his field, allowing him to simultaneously pick up wickets and keep things tight. "In T20, it's a game of urgency, especially on the batter's behalf," Briggs says. "As a bowler, I think you have to be aggressive with what you are going to bowl. You have to pick what ball you are going to bowl, you commit to that, so you're being aggressive as the bowler, but you are defensive with your field because clearly you want the men back to see if the batsmen are going to take risks.

"It is trying to get them to do what you want them to do effectively. I learned that from Daniel a few years ago. He said you can attack and defend in the same ball. You just have to be aggressive as a bowler with the right field. It's about having that mindset really of being on top of a batter to try and be a step ahead.

"You have to be clever and play it by ear. There are definitely times when you have to close out an over and just say 'Right, if I don't get hit for a boundary here you are winning'. At other times, there is the potential opportunity to think he's not going to come at me here, so I've got a chance to give this one a little bit more air to try and take a wicket. That can change from ball to ball."

Despite Briggs' impressive showings in domestic cricket, he has not played for England since 2014. He made a solitary ODI appearance for his country, against Pakistan in 2012, and played seven T20Is in all, with mixed results, before being dropped after a T20 in Hobart in which he conceded 53 runs from four wicket-less overs. Although he was not alone in being hammered that day as Australia racked up 213 for 4, he has not played for England since.

Briggs was just 21 when he made his debut and admits now that, although it was an "honour" to have played for England, it probably came a bit early. "When I played, my career was very much on an upward curve. I hadn't had much failure because it happened so fast. Going through that has helped me. The same in county cricket, you have ups and downs and you learn how to cope and you learn how to get through things.

"If I had that chance again, I'd probably do things a little bit differently. If I was to get that chance now, I would definitely have the tools to be able to withstand different things. But this England team at the minute is so hard to get into so I can only really concentrate on county cricket and having a good Big Bash."

Although Briggs says he is not thinking about an England recall, despite next year's T20 World Cup being held in India where England will definitely need to take three spinners in their squad, a good Big Bash would certainly put his name in the frame. Ed Smith, England's chief selector, has admitted that they need to build greater depth in their spin bowling stocks in limited overs cricket and they have taken only two spinners on the tour to South Africa.

"I'm going to try my best in the Big Bash and hope I perform well enough," Briggs says. "If that gets me noticed, that would be great. If not, I will have played in the Big Bash and that's a win-win for me. It's not something I'm thinking of, the T20 World Cup. I haven't actually thought of that. I suppose if I can just do well in that format from now till then, I'll be potentially be somewhere close, but it's not something I'm focusing on."

For now, he is determined to soak up the Big Bash experience, even if it will be a very different few months to how it would have been before COVID-19 struck. Nevertheless, if Briggs can display the sort of form in Australia that he has in county cricket over the past few seasons, his stock and profile will rise. If that happens, more T20 franchise opportunities might come his way and, perhaps, a few more England caps.