Glenn Maxwell was named to return for the Melbourne Stars, while there were injury updates on Matthew Wade and Riley Meredith with the Hurricanes, Renegades and Thunder squads revealed.
SQUAD NEWS
The Melbourne Stars named an extended 17-man squad to face the Sydney Thunder in Albury on Saturday afternoon, with the early 3:30pm AEDT start.
Glenn Maxwell is included to return from a forearm injury along with Joe Burns after illness.
Stars squad: Maxwell (c), Burns, Cartwright, Couch, Dawson, Harper, Kellaway, Larkin, Merlo, Mir, Paris, Rauf, Rocchiccioli, Rogers, Steketee, Stoinis, Webster
The Thunder have named a 14-man squad to face the Stars, with Jason Sangha back, replacing Blake Nikitaras. The Thunder said: “Sangha returns to the team having completed rehab on a wrist injury sustained in training a few weeks ago.”
Thunder squad: Bancroft, Davies, Gilkes, Green (c), Hales, Hatcher, Zaman Khan, McAndrew, Ross, Salzmann, Sams, Sandhu, J.Sangha, T.Sangha
The Hobart Hurricanes once again named their entire 18-man squad for Saturday night’s game with the Melbourne Renegades at Blundstone Arena, rendering the purpose of squad announcements completely useless, with zero insight into their line-up.
However, Honeyball was able to glean some insights from Canes coach Jeff Vaughan on Matthew Wade (back pain) and Riley Meredith (side) who missed last game against Perth, despite traveling west.
Vaughan said: “Wadey’s was just a back spasm that occurred on matchday. Just woke up in the morning and had some treatment. When we went to the ground, we expected him to play. He felt it in the nets.
“Riley was really close hence why we took him to Perth. Just a little bit of a niggle. We just didn’t want to run the risk there. We’re expecting both of them as a big chance to play.”
Vaughan also praised Nikhil Chaudhary as an “X-factor” but noted he came into the side for Wade as his standby. He also discussed Chris Jordan’s batting role, having starred against the Scorchers.
He said: “He’ll be in the middle order there somewhere, depending on the structure of the team and the depth of the innings. He’ll always be in that 6-7-8 position depending on how the innings is rolling out.”
Hurricanes squad: Ellis (c), Anderson, Carlisle, Chaudhary, David, Dooley, Guthrie, Hain, Hatzoglou, Heazlett, Jewell, Jordan, McDermott, Meredith, Owen, Stanlake, Wade, Wright
The Renegades named a 14-player squad with Peter Siddle replacing young bat Harry Dixon. There’s still no Shaun Marsh.
Renegades squad: Maddinson (c), Clarke, Finch, Fraser-McGurk, Harvey, de Kock, O’Neill, Richardson, Rogers, Siddle, Sutherland, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Wells, Zampa
UPDATES
Sean Abbott was a notable absentee from the Sydney Sixers’ line-up for Friday night’s game having been set to return after missing last game for personal reasons. It’s understood he was ruled out due to illness.
Stars pair Haris Rauf and Usama Mir along with Thunder bowler Zaman Khan were all called into Pakistan’s T20I squad for a five-game series in New Zealand (January 12-21). The PCB said: “The players named in the squad will be assembling for a training camp, ahead of their departure. The camp will take place 28 December 2023 to 3 January 2024 in Lahore.”
With that in mind, it is anticipated Rauf and Mir’s last BBL game will be on December 28, while Zaman will be done on December 27. There is some talk, however, that they’ll be permitted to stay in Australia and link up with the squad in New Zealand in early January, so watch this space.
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