The Sydney Sixers and the Hobart Hurricanes have named their squads for Monday night’s game in Launceston, with Sean Abbott the big shock absentee, while there were notes on Zak Crawley and Aaron Hardie.
SQUAD NEWS
The Sydney Sixers have named their 14-man squad to ace the Hobart Hurricanes in Launceston on Monday night, with Sean Abbott the big shock exclusion. Abbott has remained in Sydney due to “personal family reasons”.
Todd Murphy comes into the squad, while Ryan Hadley, Steve Smith, Izharulhaq Naveed and Abbott drop out.
Sixers squad: Bird, Curran, Davies, Dwarshuis, Edwards, Henriques, Hughes, Murphy, O’Keefe, Patterson, Perry, Philippe, Silk, Vince
The Hurricanes named their entire 18-man squad late on Sunday evening for the game, offering zero insights into their likely side.
Hurricanes squad: Ellis (c), Anderson, Carlisle, Chaudhary, David, Dooley, Guthrie, Hain, Hatzoglou, Heazlett, Jewell, Jordan, McDermott, Meredith, Owen, Stanlake, Wade, Wright
Hobart coach Jeff Vaughan talked up a few of their players including bargain all-rounder Nikhil Chaudhary who many coaches are using as a loop.
Vaughan said: “(Chaudhary) that’s certainly why we contracted him. We did a lot of due diligence around our playing list. He brings a different skill set, someone who’s a very smart cricketer with the bat, has an ability to hit 360 degrees, is good with the ball, calm in a crisis, and a hell of a lovely young man and we think he’s going to be a pretty good cricketer.”
The Canes coach also confirmed Matthew Wade will open, meaning Ben McDermott is likely at 3. On Wade, he said: “He’ll be at the top of the order, at this stage that’s our plan, and he’ll hopefully go out and whack them.”
View our predicted line-ups for the Hurricanes-Sixers game here
UPDATES
Aaron Hardie ($178k BAT/BWL) spoke to ESPNCricinfo about his likely bowling role this season, which we didn’t get to see on Sunday.
He said: “I’m looking forward to being able to bowl my four overs [in the BBL]. We have some amazing new ball bowlers in Dorff [Jason Behrendorff] and Richo [Jhye Richardson], but I can help them out if needed and can do a job in the middle-latter overs. A lot of things will be match-up dependent, but I think my flexibility is a strength.”
Hardie also noted he’s fully fit as opposed to other seasons, impacting his bowling role. He said: “I was telling the coaching staff that this is the first BBL season that I have started fully fit. The body’s really good. I’m excited.”
Meanwhile, Scorchers teammate Zak Crawley ($120k BAT) concluded his England duties in Sunday’s ODI against the West Indies, prompting some to question whether he’ll play in Perth’s game on Wednesday. But Honeyball understands he’ll fly back to England before linking up with the Scorchers in time for game 3, given the lengthy BBL break during the first Test.
