BBL|09 season preview: Perth Scorchers

The Perth Scorchers have had a rocky off-season between high profile departures and injury worries, but the KFC Big Bash’s most successful club still boasts plenty of firepower.

Mitch Marsh has recovered from his fractured wrist and will feature in their opening match, Jhye Richardson is all but back to his best with the ball and allrounders Ashton Turner and Ashton Agar will be pivotal in their respective roles.

The worry for Perth is they could lose all four of them to international duty come Australia's ODI tour of India in mid-January, but they would return for the finals campaign if the Scorchers can finish in the top five.

The shock exit of Shaun Marsh to the Melbourne Renegades left coach Adam Voges "heartbroken" while World Cup bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile and former Test player Hilton Cartwright both joined the Melbourne Stars.

In response, the Scorchers have brought in two new overseas imports for this season, with the big-hitting Liam Livingstone and fellow Englishman Chris Jordan will go some way to plugging the gaps those exits left.

The Scorchers face losing Jordan if they make the Big Bash Finals after he was named in England's 50-over team for their tour of South Africa.

Perth's bowling stocks took a hit with Jason Behrendorff out for the summer following back surgery, and AJ Tye remains a faint hope of playing late in the season after he had surgery on an elbow injury.

But despite all that, the Scorchers have emerged in decent shape, recruiting astutely while Voges promises he's learned the lessons of a difficult first season in charge that saw the three-time champions finish dead last in BBL|08.

With a full season at Optus Stadium under the belt they now better understand their home conditions as they seek to replicate their former fortress at the WACA Ground.

And with the recruitment of Fawad Ahmed, Perth again have the option of playing two spinners while the emergence of Cameron Green will be a fascinating subplot, even if the 20-year-old will be restricted from bowling.

BBL|08 result: Eighth (four wins, 10 defeats)

Squad: Ashton Agar, Fawad Ahmed, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Chris Jordan (England), Matthew Kelly, Liam Livingstone (England), Mitch Marsh, Joel Paris, Kurtis Patterson, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman.

(Players can be added during the tournament if squad members are unavailable due to injury or national selection)

Ins: Fawad Ahmed, Aaron Hardie, Nick Hobson, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Kurtis Patterson

Outs: Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Michael Klinger, Shaun Marsh, Usman Qadir, David Willey

Possible Best XI: Liam Livingstone, Josh Inglis, Cameron Bancroft, Ashton Turner, Mitch Marsh (c), Cameron Green, Ashton Agar, Chris Jordan, Jhye Richardson, Matt Kelly, Fawad Ahmed.

The inside word with head coach Adam Voges

The off-season

It wasn't the season we wanted last year, we've got high expectations on ourselves so that was disappointing but we're refreshed this year, there's a number of changes to our list that I think will be exciting, all the while still keeping a lot of our local Western Australian roots.

We take a lot from the lessons we learned from last year, I think we're better equipped, particularly at Optus Stadium, we've got more games under our belt and understand the conditions there a lot better.

We want to be tough to beat at home and that was something we really prided ourselves on when we were playing at the WACA Ground and something we don't quite have yet at Optus but we're certainly keen to make that the fortress that the WACA was.

At the start of the season we sat down and talked to all our players about what they wanted to get out of their games and what they wanted out of their career. They were open and honest and if they have buy-in to the direction we want to take as a group then they become accountable to each other and trying to get better each and every day.

Injury update

Mitch Marsh played in an intra-squad game (last Thursday) and got through really well. We're really confident he'll be fit to play our first game against the Sixers next week. Maybe not bowling, and that's purely because he needs to get the rest of his body up and going again for bowling. His hand is fine. We would expect if it's not the first game then certainly the second game that he would be playing as an allrounder.

Jhye Richardson is going really well. He had a little bit of a setback just prior to the Marsh Cup final and still managed to bowl beautifully in that game and has had a couple of weeks off just to let things settle. His throwing will still be impeded a little bit but in terms of his bowling and batting he's ready to go and will be a really important part of our campaign.

Ashton Turner isn't far away from bowling again. He didn't bowl in our practice game but has been bowling in the nets. He's always been a pretty handy go-to guy, he's quite clever in the way he reads what the batsman's trying to do and can bowl the odd cheeky over for us.

We don't expect Kurtis Patterson to be right for the first game, we're mindful he's nursing a pretty significant quad injury he's had for the majority of the season. He's tracking well but realistically he may not play before Christmas.

Jason Behrendorff certainly is ruled out for the season. We're holding onto hope that AJ Tye may be able to recover for the back end of the season, but there's obviously still a lot to be done there. We'll get some local replacement players in for those guys pretty early on in the tournament.

Cameron Green has been diagnosed with a stress fracture, so he won't take any part with the ball in this tournament but we certainly still see a big role for him. He's been excellent domestically for WA in Shield and one-day cricket and hoping he can bring that form into the Big Bash as well.

Imports

We've kept an eye on Liam Livingstone for a little while now. I played against him a little bit in County Cricket in England so I knew what he could do, and he's been out on an England Lions tour a couple of seasons ago and played some practice games against the Scorchers. He's done well in tournaments around the world but particularly at home for Lancashire where he does a really good job at the top of the order.

He's a big, strong guy. I didn't realise how big he was until we picked him up from the airport the other day. He's strong, he's certainly impressed a few people the other day in our practice game (where he smashed 50 off 20 balls). Looking forward to him putting the pressure on the opposition.

With losing a couple of our senior guys to injury it meant we really needed to get someone to come in and fill that role and I think Chris Jordan will do that perfectly.

He's one of the top 10 ranked bowlers in T20 international cricket, he had a wonderful series for England in New Zealand, he's been playing a lot of cricket. But it's his skills at the back end, his experience, he's a gun in the field and he can clear the rope at the back end as well. He gives us an all-round package and he's a ripping bloke to boot.

Young Guns

Cameron Green is certainly walking tall at the moment. It's like any young cricketer, they have that one breakout performance that gives them that belief they belong at this level and he's had that with the hundred he scored against Queensland in Brisbane.

He's taken a lot of confidence from that and I think he's just starting to show other people around the country what we've known here locally for a little while. He's an extremely talented player, he's still only 20 years old, so there's still a lot of room for improvement.

He's 6ft 7in, he's a big kid with long levers and he can hit a long ball. And as technically sound as he is for the long form of the game, he certainly has a lot of power and ability to clear the ropes, particularly late in the innings but can certainly bat through the middle as well.

The thing I've liked most about him is he's come in and performed under pressure and Big Bash cricket is really all about performing and executing under pressure so I'm very excited to see how he goes.

Also Nick Hobson, who we saw a little bit of last year, I thought he did a good job when he got some opportunities and I'm sure he'll get an opportunity again at some point. And Aaron Hardie who we saw briefly as well who's a good all-round option for us. We always like to have that local flavour in our squad and that's three up and coming young guys who we'll look to have an impact.

Players to watch

Ashton Agar is going really well. We've seen him recently in the Australian T20 set-up, he provides everything, he's been excellent with the ball, provides batting at that six or seven spot and is an absolute gun in the field. He's confident, he's been playing really well this year. Without putting any undue pressure on him, I think he's going to have a good tournament.

And Mitch Marsh is determined to do well. He's had time out of the game which has actually given him some time to focus more on his white-ball cricket. I think he's been focussed on trying to play Test cricket for a number of years now and has maybe neglected a little bit in terms of his preparation for some white-ball stuff. So he's actually been able to get a lot of hitting in as he's been rehabbing that hand and I think he'll be in a really good space. I'm not sure what Australia's selectors are thinking but a fully fit and firing Mitch Marsh would be an asset to any team.

The Scorchers' biggest strength?

Even with the injuries we've had I still think our bowling attack is going to be our strength. We've got some good variety there with Jhye and Matt Kelly – I thought he took some really good strides forward last year, particularly with his bowling at the death. We bring Chris Jordan in who's really experienced and will bring us a lot of skill, particularly at the back end as well. And then we've got the two spinners in Ashton Agar and Fawad Ahmed that I'm really looking forward to having working in tandem.

The fact we can go with the dual spin options isn't something we've had since we had Hoggy (Brad Hogg) around really. So we'll be able to get back to that sort of gameplan but then having the pace of Richardson and Jordan, the skills of Kelly, and the left-arm option of Joel Paris who is fit and available this year. We've got some good variety in our attack and we've always prided ourselves on our ability with the ball.

Biggest threat?

Every team is a rival but the minute the Brisbane Heat signed AB de Villiers they became favourites. But everyone knows on their day, that's the beauty of the competition, if you're slightly off then you generally lose. The travel is going to be a challenge for us, but it is what it is, we don't dwell on it too much. It's something we've planned a lot for – it's not ideal but we'll get on with it. Any team can win the league, that's exciting part of Big Bash cricket.