The squads for Saturday’s Adelaide Strikers-Brisbane Heat game were confirmed but there is rain looming on the radar, while there was some big news about Cooper Connolly’s role.
SQUAD NEWS
The Brisbane Heat named 13-man squad to face the Strikers tomorrow, with Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Lachlan Hearne dropping out from the squad for last game, with Josh Brown and Charlie Wakim coming in.
Heat squad: Bartlett, Billings, Brown, Bryant, Johnson, Kuhnemann, Munro (c), Neser, Swepson, Wakim, Walter, Wildermuth, Wood
Heat stand-in captain Colin Munro indicated Brown will play. He said: “Browny will be back in the next game or two; it shows the depth and it’d be nice to open with him as well.”
The Adelaide Strikers named a 13-man squad to face the Brisbane Heat on Saturday, with David Payne ($140k BWL) left out. Honeyball understands he’s not yet arrived in Adelaide but will be available for Round 2.
Strikers squad: M.Short (c), Agar, Bazley, Boyce, Doggett, Hose, Lynn, Manenti, Nielsen, Overton, D.Short, Thornton, Weatherald
Strikers coach Jason Gillespie revealed D’Arcy Short ($67k BAT) will open the batting alongside Matt Short. He said: “D’Arcy will open, you’ll have Short/Short up top which is very exciting. We just think he’s a quality player who adds real value, he bowls some spin as well, he’s a very good fielder and he smacks them up top.”
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UPDATES
Glenn Maxwell ($118k BAT/BWL) has been ruled out of the Melbourne Stars’ second game of their Round 1 double, while Nathan Coulter-Nile will undergo a scan on his calf injury.
The Stars said in an update: “Maxwell has been ruled out of Wednesday’s clash against the Scorchers after injuring his forearm muscle. Maxwell suffered the injury whilst batting against the Heat on Thursday and will start his rehabilitation immediately.”
Scorchers captain Ashton Turner confirmed Cooper Connolly ($70k BAT/BWL) will open the batting in Perth’s first game against the Renegades on Sunday, with Zak Crawley on the sidelines.
Turner said: “Zak is going to come in probably for the third game and he will get a run at it from there, but Stevie did it really well for us last year, he will be at the top of the order and then Cooper.
“One of the cons of having a really successful team is how to give guys we know are really talented opportunities to continue to evolve and grow their games and Cooper is one of those guys we have identified and think he can be a superstar.”
The Sydney Thunder confirmed the signing of 18-year-old batsman Sam Konstas to round out their 18-man squad. Konstas scored 1,000 runs across all grades in his debut NSW Premier Cricket season for Sutherland.
One to keep an eye on is the availability of Gades spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, with Afghanistan announcing a series of games against UAE in late December, coinciding with his side’s Round 3 double. Afghan cricketers don’t always prioritise international cricket, so it remains to be seen if this will be an issue but he does have a mid-January series against India coming up and is contracted for the ILT20.
