Marsh hints at early return, Faulkner’s BBL|10 all but over after setback, Sams hurt
James Faulkner’s BBL|10 campaign appears to be over after the Hurricanes confirmed a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury, while Mitch Marsh joked at a sooner-than-expected return.
SQUAD NEWS
The Brisbane Heat and Perth Scorchers both named unchanged squads for Tuesday’s clash in Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
Among the Heat squad is perennial looper Lachy Pfeffer ($42k BAT/WKP) which will worry some coaches, while Morne Morkel ($138k BWL) is included again and likely to be in the XI this time after being X-Factor.
Heat squad: Lynn, Bartlett, Bazley, Burns, Bryant, Cooper, Denly, Gregory, Heazlett, Kuhnemann, Laughlin, Milenko, Morkel, Pfeffer, Peirson, Steketee, Wildermuth, Wood
For Perth, there’s no surprises in their unchanged 15-man squad, although Mitch Marsh ($172k BAT/BWL) facetiously joked he’d be back from a side strain on Saturday.
Speaking to SEN, Marsh said: “It’s not too bad, probably a lot better than I expected. Side strains are always reasonably sore… so it’s pulled up really well. Hopefully I won’t be out for too long batting-wise.”
He added with tongue in cheek: “I always get in trouble from the physio because every time I get injured I announce that I’m back in two weeks batting and it’s never the case. I’m under strict instruction from the physio not to announce when I’m coming back but I reckon I’ll be back on Saturday.”
Scorchers squad: Turner, Fawad Ahmed, Bancroft, Behrendorff, Hardie, Inglis, Kelly, Livingstone, Munro, Paris, Patterson, Richardson, Rocchiccioli, Roy, Tye
UPDATES
The Hurricanes provided an update on James Faulkner ($181k BWL) who looks likely to miss the remainder of BBL|10 after a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Hobart said in a statement: “James Faulkner has left the BBL hub and returned to Hobart this afternoon, after re-aggravating his hamstring at training yesterday.
“Faulkner initially injured his hamstring in the Hurricanes clash with the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba on December 27. He had been progressing well with his rehabilitation, with an eyeing to be eligible for selection for the latter games of the tournament.
“Faulkner will undergo scans in Hobart to assess the extent of the injury at this point in time, and resume treatment back home.
“At this stage, it is unlikely that Faulkner will be able to take any further part in the tournament.”
Daniel Sams ($199k BAT/BWL) hurt his wrist while trying to field the ball off his own bowling in his second over in Monday’s loss to the Hurricanes and left the field after completing his third over.
Thunder captain Callum Ferguson said: “It was his wrist. He was a bit sore actually as you could tell, he went off the field. In those circumstances you can go off and come back on again. As it was, I didn’t need him to bowl his fourth.
“We’ll assess him. I’ll get inside and check on him and make sure everything’s OK. The fact he was able to bowl again is a real positive looking forward for sure.”
TUESDAY
Round 10 will conclude with the Perth-Heat match, while we’ll learn the squads for the Round 11 opener between Renegades-Stars (but they’ve typically been naming their squads on the morning of the game).
