The three-time Premier League champions have brought Dominic Drakes into their camp, recognising the need to keep their options intact as they approach the final stage of the ongoing season.
Drakes, the son of former West Indies cricketer Vasbert Drakes, has been in the United Arabic Emirates since the start of the second half of the tournament because of his association with the Mumbai Indians (MI) as one of their net bowlers.
Bagging his maiden Premier League gig is a culmination of a couple of terrific months for the youngster, who had a breakthrough Caribbean Premier League 2021 with eventual title-holders St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.
The 23-year-old picked up 16 wickets from 11 matches with an economy rate of 8.56 and backed that up with useful lower-order runs at a strike-rate of over 160.
Drakes shined the brightest with the bat in the final against St Lucia Kings, where his unbeaten 24-ball 48 at No.6 was instrumental to SKNP’s victory. When SKNP desperately needed someone to help them navigate through the run-chase of 160, Drakes came to their rescue and took them to their maiden trophy in CPL history.
Still very young into his domestic career, the Barbadian has played 19 T20s with 20 wickets at 8.97 rpo and scored 153 runs at a strike-rate of 159.37.
Drakes’ gain has come about through Sam Curran’s loss, as the English all-rounder was ruled out from the rest of the IPL 2021 with a lower-back injury. Curran had a poor season this year, taking 9 wickets from his 9 outings but going for an expensive 9.93 rpo. In his four outings with the bat, Curran managed only 56 runs.
Curran’s misery was summed up by his two outings in the UAE leg where the England international went for 0/56 and 0/55 versus Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals before suffering an injury that also ruled him out of T20 World Cup squad.
