The Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Stars squads for Tuesday’s BBL|15 Round 2 clash have been confirmed.
The Strikers added all-rounder Harry Manenti as a local replacement player for Travis Head and he’s been named in their 14-player squad.
Ins: Manenti
Strikers squad: Hassan Ali, Harvey, Lynn, Manenti, Nielsen, Overton, Pope, Ross, Sangha, Scott, Short (c), Thornton, Wadia, Wood
The Stars made two changes to their 14-player squad, with spinner Hamish McKenzie and fast bowler Tom Whitney added.
Ins: McKenzie, Whitney
Outs: Merlo, Sharma
Stars squad: Stoinis (c), Cartwright, Clarke, Curran, Haris Rauf, Harper, Hatcher, Kellaway, Maxwell, McKenzie, Rogers, Siddle, Swepson, Whitney
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Jhye Richardson’s availability for the Perth Scorchers’ Round 4 double is in doubt, with the speedster set to link up with the Australia squad ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, with Pat Cummins expected to miss the game. The first game of Perth’s Round 4 double is Tuesday 30 December in Sydney.
There could be further BBL impacts from the Test squad with spinner Nathan Lyon set to miss the rest of the Ashes with a hamstring injury. Heat spinner Matt Kuhnemann, Sixers tweaker Todd Murphy and Stars spinner Mitch Swepson are all in contention along with WA’s Corey Rocchiccioli who doesn’t have a BBL deal.
Nathan McSweeney spoke to SEN on Monday, providing an update on his ankle injury. He said: “I’m seeing the specialist today at 12. I think I’ve escaped surgery.
“Hopefully only a few weeks on the sidelines which is probably a good result, given what I was hearing when I initially did it. Fingers crossed, I’m not on the bench too long.”
McSweeney also discussed Jack Wildermuth’s rapid rise with the bat. He said: “We saw it in the Shield cricket at the back-end of last year. He made 2 hundreds, including one in the Shield final.
“He’s been showing glimpses of his talent. He’s dominated grade level, played some really good Shield innings and now we’re seeing it in the teal. Hopefully we see him keep growing.”
Stars ‘keeper Sam Harper heaped praise on Campbell Kellaway. He told SEN: “It’s awesome to see him bring it to the T20 format as well… Hopefully over the next month people see how good a ball striker he is as well.”
