Ollie Davies joins Sixers, Thunder table season review with Cricket NSW

Ollie Davies will join his brother Joel at Sydney Sixers in the BBL next season after leaving Sydney Thunder in the week the club is tabling a season review with Cricket New South Wales following a last-placed finish.

Davies, 25, has signed a three-year deal with Sixers as a free agent in the player movement window after playing just one game for Thunder last season.

"I'm so excited to sign with the Sydney Sixers for the next three years," Davies said in a statement. "It's a childhood dream to play professional cricket alongside my little brother Joel. We're both stoked to pull on the magenta together and run out at the SCG.

"I hope I can make meaningful contributions as we fight to bring home a championship for our fans."

Davies had made his name at Thunder in 2022-23 when he scored three half-centuries in a season to help Thunder make the finals. But his returns since then have been lean.

He played nine games last season including the final against Hobart Hurricanes. But he fell out of favour in 2025-26 and made just one appearance despite Thunder's overall struggles with the bat outside of David Warner's superb season.

Davies' departure comes as a review into Thunder's two-win season is set to be discussed at Cricket New South Wales this week. Cricket NSW chief executive Lee Germon confirmed that there would be discussions on the future of the team and coach Trevor Bayliss but no decisions had been made yet.

"We're in the process of formulating some decisions in terms of the Thunder moving forward," Germon told ESPNCricinfo on Saturday.

"I have a meeting this week where I'm going to be privy to the review, so I'm not in a position to make any comment."

Bayliss has coached Thunder for five seasons and has led them to the finals three times including making the BBL final in 2024-25. But the last-placed finish in 2025-26 was the second time Thunder have finished last during his tenure after they finished eighth in 2023-24.

Thunder's review comes hot on the heels of Germon and Cricket NSW's decision to part ways with long-time Sydney Sixers coach Greg Shipperd with a season to run on his contract following Sixers review into a season where they made the final for the third time in five seasons. Sixers also haven't finished worse than third in the last seven seasons but have not won a title since 2020-21.

Cricket NSW also decided that 2025-26 would be Shipperd's last season in charge of the Sheffield Shield and One-Day Cup side despite there being four and two games to go respectively in both competitions and with NSW still vying for both titles. Shipperd was also contracted to coach NSW until the end of 2026-27.

Sixers have yet to re-sign long-time skipper Moises Henriques and veteran batter Daniel Hughes with both eligible to move as free agents. Offspinner Todd Murphy appears likely to move as a free agent after losing his place in Sixers' XI midway through the season after being called up to Australia's Test squad.

Australia's veteran white-ball legspinner Adam Zampa looms a possible free agent signing for Sixers after he did not re-sign with Melbourne Renegades.

Sydney Sixers contract list: Sean Abbott, Joel Davies, Ollie Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Hayden Kerr, Josh Philippe, Lachlan Shaw, Jordan Silk, Steve Smith