Perth Scorchers speedster Jhye Richardson has provided an update on his injury status as he homes in on a return to bowling in the next few weeks with the BBL lingering in the background.
Richardson hasn’t played since undergoing shoulder surgery last January, enabling him to potentially fully recover from his long-term issues.
The fast bowler isn’t far off a return to play via WA Premier Cricket with Fremantle, with the BBL on his radar too.
“Body’s really good. At this stage of the recovery, what we wanted was for everything else to be right and the only limiting factor to be my shoulder, which is the case,” Richardson said.
“I haven’t been bowling too long; there’s no doubt it’s going to be uncomfortable for a little while longer. I’m sitting at 120kmh at the moment, but all things are pointing in the right direction.
“No matter how much running you do, bowling is a different kettle of fish. You don’t want to go from zero to 100 real quick.
“I’m bowling off my full run, I’m just waiting for some ball speed to come back. But returning to some sort of competitive cricket, whether it’s club cricket or second XI, sometime mid-November would be a good start.”
Richardson said returning to Test cricket was his priority and could use the WA Second XI game against Victoria from November 17 and WA’s Sheffield Shield game against SA from November 22 as potential return dates.
The Scorchers have availability concerns already with their bowling attack, with Lance Morris out for the season with injury and import David Payne tied up at the ILT20 until early January.
Recruit Joel Paris also faces a race against time to prove his fitness after picking up a hamstring complaint last week which will sideline him for 6 weeks.
Jason Behrendorff left the Scorchers after BBL|14, joining the Melbourne Renegades.
