The Melbourne Stars, Perth Scorchers and Brisbane Heat confirmed their squads for Friday’s games, while Chris Jordan touched down in Sydney creating a selection squeeze with the Sixers imports.
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The Melbourne Stars added spinner Tom O’Connell ($100k BWL) to their 16-man squad to face the Perth Scorchers at Junction Oval on Friday afternoon.
The Scorchers named an unchanged 16-man squad for both of their next two games.
Stars: Boult, Cartwright, Clarke, Couch, Coulter-Nile, Hatcher, Hinchliffe, Kellaway, Larkin, O’Connell, Rogers, Seymour, Stoinis, Webster, Wood, Zampa (c)
Scorchers: Turner (c), Agar, Bancroft, Behrendorff, Connolly, du Plessis, Eskinazi, Hardie, Hatzoglou, Hobson, Inglis (vc), Kelly, Lyth, McKenzie, Richardson, Tye
The Brisbane Heat named an unchanged 13-man squad to face the Adelaide Strikers on Friday night. The Strikers are yet to declare their squad.
Heat: Peirson (c), Bartlett, Bazley, Billings, Brown, Bryant, Kuhnemann, Munro, Neser, Renshaw, Steketee, Swepson, Whiteley
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Hilton Cartwright backed his Stars teammate Marcus Stoinis ($69k BAT/BWL) to bounce back from his back-to-back ducks to start the season, claiming he’ll relish the shorter boundaries at Junction Oval against Perth.
“I’d hate to poke the bear with big Stoin,” he said. We all know how motivated he is. He hasn’t got much to prove which is always a scary thought. He plays out here (at Junction Oval) really well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him strike some nice balls tomorrow.”
Sixers fast bowler Chris Jordan ($125k BWL) landed in Sydney on Wednesday having been a late arrival due to injury.
He’s not in Thursday’s squad but his potential return may impact Naveen-ul-Haq ($104k BWL) and Izharulhaq Naveed’s ($91k BWL) selection given only three imports can play in any one game, with James Vince ($86k BAT) there too. The Sixers have a double in Round 5.
Ollie Davies ($78k BAT) offered an update on the issue that meant he didn’t field against the Adelaide Strikers on Tuesday.
He said: “I got a hip arthroscope in March. It’s been good for a while but it’s been a bit sore as of late, so just trying to manage that. I felt I wasn’t going to be able to give 100% for the team. We’ve got a game in seven days, so I’m hoping I can get on some medication and get that sorted before the next game.”
Matt Short ($230k BAT/BWL) spoke about relishing his role as opening batsman. He said: “All through my junior career I was an opener. I was used to it. When I first came across to the Strikers, it was a struggle through the middle, so I was lucky Dizz (Jason Gillespie) saw faith in me at the top of the order. That really suits my game.”
