The Melbourne Stars and SuperCoaches will be sweating Glenn Maxwell’s elbow injury from Thursday’s BBL opener, while there was big news out of the Scorchers and Renegades.
SQUAD NEWS
The Sydney Sixers named up a 17-man squad for Friday’s clash with the Melbourne Renegades at the SCG, with Hayden Kerr (side strain) and Todd Murphy (PM’s XI) left out.
Sixers squad (17): Abbott, Bird, Curran, Davies, Dwarshuis, Edwards, Hadley, Henriques (c), Hughes, Naveed, O’Keefe, Patterson, Perry, Philippe, Silk, Smith, Vince
Ben Dwarshuis was named despite the shock passing of his father this week. Sixers teammate Jordan Silk said about Dwarshuis’ availability: “To be honest I’m not too sure. I haven’t seen Benny. That’ll be completely left up to him. All we can do as a club and players is through our support around him which we are and sending our best wishes.”
NSW 25-year-old right-arm fast bowler Ryan Hadley has been named as a local replacement for Kerr. Hadley will need to be in the starting 12 for the game, as per BBL rules.
Honeyball tracked down the scorecards from the Sixers-Thunder scorecards earlier this week for an insight into line-ups. Click here to view.
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The Melbourne Renegades named a 14-man squad for Friday’s clash, with veterans Shaun Marsh and Peter Siddle left out.
Renegades squad (14): Maddinson (c), Sutherland, Clarke, Cox, Dixon, Finch, Fraser-McGurk, Harvey, O’Neill, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Richardson, Rogers, Wells, Zampa
English batsman-wicketkeeper Jordan Cox, who had a previous BBL stint with the Hobart Hurricanes, has signed as a replacement for Quinton de Kock, who’ll miss game 1. Cox has been playing at the Abu Dhabi T10 League, where he was second top run scorer upon his exit with 265 runs in six games at 66.25 with a 232 strike rate.
On Cox’s role, Maddinson said: “He’s a jet in the field, can wicket keep and a middle order player as well, which is what we need at the moment.”
Renegades captain Nic Maddinson offered a word of caution about Adam Zampa’s availability for Friday following his busy period at the World Cup having returned home from India last week. Maddinson replied “hope so” when asked if Zampa would play and added: “I’d be pretty disappointed if he doesn’t… I know he wants to get involved and play. He does need to prioritise rest, it’s been a big couple of months for him. I know he’s in Sydney, so hopefully we see him tomorrow night.”
Maddinson only just returned from an ACL injury last month and said: “Knee is good. Feels like it’s tracking nicely. Got some club cricket and some BBL practice matches last week. Ready to go tomorrow… (The issues are) not so much with the bat anymore. The challenge is probably going to be in the field these first couple of games… I probably have to hide myself in a few spots every now and then.”
UPDATES
On the topic of the Gades, Honeyball understands the club expects Quinton de Kock ($180k WKP/BAT) to be available for Sunday’s clash with the Scorchers, the second game in their double, after his Abu Dhabi T10 League side Delhi Bulls missed the finals on Thursday. It is expected, the South African wicketkeeper-batsman will be on a plane to Australia from UAE on Friday ahead of Sunday’s game.
Gades coach David Saker spoke to cricket.com.au about a number of players, including cheapie Jake Fraser-McGurk ($62k BAT), who may get an elevated batting role. He said: “The way Jake’s been playing Shield cricket, I think they’re (Fraser-McGurk and Mackenzie Harvey) in a good spot to make a big move this year and they’re going to play a huge role for us.”
That may be helped by Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch likely missing games as Saker explained. He said: “We probably won’t have ‘Sos’ for the first couple of games … he’s had a couple of injury setbacks (which) is quite frustrating. He’s at an age where it’s been recurring for him but he’s just a good person to have around our group and if we get him fit and if he can play six or seven round games and finals we’ll be happy.
“We’ll try to rotate ‘Finchy’ and Marsh a little bit because Shaun’s record of playing after travel isn’t great and we’ll try to give Finchy a rest if we can. We never like doing that but it’s for the benefit of us more for the back end of the season – it’s going to be important that Shaun and Aaron are playing good cricket at the back end.”
On the role of all-rounder Will Sutherland, Saker said: “We could potentially move him up if the game is situated like that; if we get to 17 or 18 overs and we’re only two (wickets) down I think he would be a logical one to go in next. But we still have guys like ‘Finchy’ and ‘Wellsy’ (Jon Wells) in the middle order and at the back end, they do just as good a job – Wellsy mightn’t hit the ball out of the park, but he’ll go at a good rate.
“I know he made some big moves forward last year, but I think you might see some even bigger moves this year. Will made some huge steps forward not just with the bat last year but with the ball and his leadership qualities has got him the vice-captaincy. We’re really excited we’ve got him in the group, and I think in three- or four-years’ time, you’d just assume he’ll be in the running for higher honours.”
On Maddinson’s bowling role, Saker added: “If you put Nic Maddinson in as a spin bowling option who does a good job when he has the ball, we’ve got a lot of bases covered with our spin.”
Scorchers coach Adam Voges revealed Ashton Agar ($105k BAT/BWL) won’t play game 1 in the BBL, despite returning from a calf injury in their intrasquad game in midweek. That has major trickle-on effects, but most immediately Voges strongly hinted Hamish McKenzie ($42k BWL) will play on Sunday against the Renegades.
Voges told 6PR: “Ashton Agar’s injury concerns are still front of mind but in Hamish McKenzie we feel like we’ve got someone who can fill that void for these first couple of games really well. Excited to see him get his opportunity and we’ll welcome Ash back at some stage.”
The other impact of Agar’s absence is on young all-rounder Cooper Connolly. Voges said: “We’ll certainly see more of Coop this year. He had that breakout performance in the final last year. He’ll take confidence out of that. We see more opportunity and responsibility for Coop this year. He’s an exciting talent. We’re looking forward to seeing him get out there.”
Voges also declared Jhye Richardson ($247k BWL) “ready to go” after returning in the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup recently following shoulder issues. He told 6PR: “Yeah he’s ready to go. We saw the impact that Jhye had the beginning of last year’s tournament. He bowled beautifully. We think and hope his body is in great shape. The Shield game was just the start and he can string consecutive games together and have an important role for us throughout this tournament.”
Glenn Maxwell ($118k BAT/BWL) appeared to hurt his elbow/forearm during the Melbourne Stars’ season opener against the Brisbane Heat on Thursday. The Stars are next in action on Tuesday against Perth.
Stars coach Peter Moores told FoxCricket: “He’s got some pain in his forearm. He’s icing it at the moment. We’ve just got to see how it reacts tomorrow. We don’t really know yet.
“First ball I think he squirted one out and felt it. I think it’s nothing major but we’ve just got to wait and see… He felt it was OK at the time. It was his call at the time along with the physio. Hopefully it’s nothing major… Like most things don’t look too far ahead but we’ve got quite a slow in, don’t play til the 13th and the 23rd so we have got some time on our hands.”
Stars veteran fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile also picked up a lower leg/calf injury, restricting him to batting 11. Stars teammate Hilton Cartwright said: “He’ll probably go back to Melbourne and get a scan. Unfortunately, he’s got a history of calves. We’ve only got one game over the next 10-15 days so we’re hoping it’ll be only one game out.”
Honeyball understands James Bazley ($165k BAT/BWL) will be available for selection for the Adelaide Strikers’ first game against the Heat on Saturday, having recovered from a recent hamstring injury sustained in the Sheffield Shield.
