Perth Scorchers head coach Adam Voges offered a range of insights on Thursday into his plans, namely around Mitch Marsh, Finn Allen, Josh Inglis, Jhye Richardson and Aaron Hardie, plus Saturday’s squads are out.
TEAM NEWS
Fergus O’Neill has been omitted from the Melbourne Renegades’ 14-man squad to face the Melbourne Stars at the MCG on Saturday night.
‘Gades fast-medium bowler Xavier Crone comes into the squad for O’Neill, who hasn’t taken a wicket in their past 2 games.
Ins: Crone / Outs: O’Neill
Renegades squad: Sutherland (c), Bethell, Brown, Crone, Evans, Fraser-McGurk, Harvey, Richardson, Rogers, Sandhu, Seifert, Stow, Wells, Zampa
The Stars have added spinner Doug Warren to their 14-man squad, with Brody Couch dropping out.
Ins: Warren / Outs: Couch
Stars squad: Stoinis (c), Cartwright, Duckett, Harper, Kellaway, Maxwell, Merlo, Paris, Rogers, Siddle, Steketee, Usama Mir, Warren
UPDATES
Marsh and Richardson weren’t in Perth’s 14-man squad for Friday’s game with the Sydney Thunder but Voges is hopeful they’ll become available soon, having both missed the final XI for the fifth Test in Sydney.
On Marsh, Voges said: “For us we’d love to see him in orange at some point. We’ll be in communication with Mitch and Cricket Australia in the next 24-48 hours to understand Mitch’s availability. Certainly hopeful we’ll see him at some point.”
On Richardson, Voges said: “With Jhye not being named in the Sydney Test either we’ll have that conversation around his availability for the game on the 7th or the trip to Sydney.”
Josh Inglis is another who was with the Test squad but has injured his calf. Voges said: “With Josh with his rehab from the calf, my understanding is it’s more likely he’ll be getting ready for Sri Lanka. We’ll just see how that goes ad keep asking the question.”
Voges also hinted that Aaron Hardie could be back bowling soon, which may impact the overs designated to Cooper Connolly.
He said: “It’s great to have Aaron back in the team. We missed him in the first few games. We’ll continue to build him. Hopefully we’ll see him with ball in hand in the not too distant future as well.”
On Connolly’s batting role, Voges added: “Cooper is going beautifully at the moment. Another great innings. Really composed.”
The Scorchers coach offered praise for bargain-priced Finn Allen, who finally delivered a breakout innings.
Voges said: “We know Finn is a quality player. That’s why we got him with our pre-signing. We knew it was a matter of time before he had a real impact in this competition.
“It was nice to see him play well in Adelaide. Hopefully he takes a lot of confidence out of that and it kickstarts his campaign.”
Ashton Agar was limited to one bowling over in Adelaide due to back spasms but Voges seemed confident he’ll play.
Voges said: “We’ve named him in the 14. We’ll give Ash every opportunity to get up. He’s improving with each day.
“It’s just a back spasm he had while he was fielding. A three-hour flight probably didn’t do him much good but we’ll give him every opportunity to get up for tomorrow.”
