White Ferns veteran Suzie Bates will step in when international duties see Hobart's draft picks leave the tournament early
Bates joins Hobart to bolster squad for run home
The Hobart Hurricanes have landed veteran New Zealand star Suzie Bates to bolster their batting for the Weber WBBL campaign.
The 37-year-old veteran has been signed as a replacement player for Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who will miss the closing stages of WBBL|10 with international duties.
Wyatt-Hodge, who was taken fourth in the WBBL Draft this season after the Hurricanes forced a trio of retention picks, will be available for the first seven games before being replaced by Bates for the final three games and any finals.
Bates, who featured in New Zealand's heavy defeat to Australia in last night's T20 World Cup match in Sharjah, brings her wealth of experience to the club, with Hurricanes General Manager of High Performance, Salliann Beams, declaring her the "perfect" replacement player.
"Bringing Suzie into our WBBL squad just made sense as soon as we saw she was not selected in the draft we thought she would be the perfect replacement for Danni once we knew her availability," Beams said.
"She will give us an experienced operator when we lose someone of Danni's ability in our line-up."
While Lizelle Lee will be a constant at the top of the order, the Hurricanes are also facing the prospect of losing South Africa allrounder Chloe Tryon for the closing stages of the tournament to international commitments.
Bates has played 167 T20 internationals, averaging 29.48 with a strike rate of 108.78 following her 20 against the Aussies in Sharjah last night.
She's played in eight of the nine seasons of WBBL so far, playing exactly 100 games across stints with the Perth Scorchers, Adelaide Strikers and, for the past two summers, Sydney Sixers.
The Hurricanes have one further local spot to fill on their WBBL|10 list, with an announcement expected later this week, while a replacement for Tryon is yet to be finalised.
Hobart Hurricanes WBBL|10 squad (so far): Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Nicola Carey, Heather Graham, Ruth Johnston, Lizelle Lee (South Africa), Hayley Silver-Holmes, Tabatha Saville, Amy Smith, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Rachel Trenaman, Chloe Tryon (South Africa), Elyse Villani, Callie Wilson, Danni Wyatt-Hodge (England)