The reasons behind Bancroft's BBL club switch

Cameron Bancroft is as West Australian as they come, you just had to listen to him speak after hitting the winning runs to secure the state back-to-back Marsh Sheffield Shield titles.

"We all really enjoy playing with each other and winning games of cricket and trying to thrive in the big moments, that's what you live for," he said in March.

But after his T20 game finally 'clicked' during the second half of KFC BBL|12 in the final month of his two-year contract with the WA Big Bash club, the 30-year-old was faced with a difficult choice: stay loyal and take a pay cut or leave to realise his full value.

In the end he choice the latter, but if his recent three-year contract extension with WA for the state-based competitions is anything to go by, Perth is where his heart is.

It's a scenario that's played out countless times at the Scorchers such has been their unrivalled success across the 12 editions of the competition and their endless production of domestic talent.

Every year there seems to be one player, who is just in too good of form that the club's salary cap just can't afford to keep them anymore.

Nathan Coulter-Nile took 14 wickets and hit 102 runs at 20 for the Scorchers in 2018-19 – his best season to date at that point before joining the Melbourne Stars the following summer.

Shaun Marsh hit 96 not out from 55 balls in one of his final innings for the Scorchers before joining the Melbourne Renegades, but only averaged 25 – the least productive of his BBL career – in his last full season for the club in 2016-17.

And Kurtis Patterson, although a New South Welshman, discovered his best T20 form at the Scorchers in BBL|11 where he kept Bancroft out of the side due to a career-best 391-run season.

The list goes on – Hilton Cartwright, Joel Paris, Sam Whiteman and Corey Rocchiccioli – some of Western Australia's most important players in the red-ball format have had to find homes elsewhere in the Big Bash.

But as is the case year in, year out, waiting in the wings is another local star ready to stand up and make the nation take notice, like little-known BBL|12 final heroes Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson.

Bancroft has never been worth more in T20 cricket across his eight years at the Scorchers than what he is now.

He's showed glimpses of his short form ability in the past but eventually would find himself squeezed out of the XI for a more powerful striker or a Scorchers returning from international duty.

That was certainly the case the season before last when Bancroft, striking at 106.54 for the tournament, was replaced by Hobson for two matches before Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis returned from the Australian Test squad for the finals series.

It was also the case last summer when South African Faf du Plessis and Englishman Adam Lyth were preferred at the top of the order for the opening six matches of BBL|12 before Bancroft edged out Lyth after he averaged just 10 in seven knocks.

And it's arguably still the case now – at full strength with Mitch Marsh, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie and potentially Cameron Green available, Bancroft might not have found himself in the Scorchers' strongest top-order line up to start next season.

He's would also be behind Perth's seven internationally-capped squad members – Marsh, Ashton Agar, Inglis, Ashton Turner, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff and Andrew Tye – in the contract weightings, meaning other clubs were lining up to make right-hander more lucrative offers.

But those who watched last year's Big Bash may have noticed subtle shifts in Bancroft's white-ball batting that helped him transition into an "assured and consistent" batter in all formats, which will give the opener confidence he can replicate his electric finish to BBL|12 at the Sydney Thunder.

Noticeably, there was more pre-delivery movement from Bancroft – especially facing spinners – than his traditional stillness in red-ball cricket that gave him greater momentum through his stroke play.

He also worked hard to make conventional and reverse sweeps a strong feature of his shot repertoire and his ability to clear the rope through the middle period of the innings also improved.

"It's (was) nice to watch him actually impose himself on the situation and also ask opposition bowlers to have to change what they need to do to try and bowl to him and contain him," Scorchers batting coach Beau Casson told cricket.com.au during the season.

"And it (wasn't) just a quick fix. It's something he's slowly been chipping away at for a couple of years and he's starting to see the fruits of it now."

Bancroft came to a decision last week that the Thunder was his preferred new home for BBL|13 and the Sydney-based club has a three-year offer on the table.

It's understood he'll also be given an opportunity to keep wicket and the Thunder are desperate for some power at the top of the order with four of their six openers striking at fewer than 125 in the past two seasons, with Bancroft's strike rate of 140 in BBL|12 more than 15 runs higher than his career T20 mark.

Only time will tell if his departure hurts the Scorchers, but if history tells us one thing, he won't be the last local star they could be forced to relinquish.