Injury concerns for captaincy trio as BBL|14 season nears

Three Big Bash captains are racing the clock to be fit for their club's opening game of KFC BBL|14 with just over a week to go until the start of the new season.

Perth Scorchers skipper Ashton Turner is under the biggest cloud after injuring his side while batting for club side Fremantle over the weekend, while Sydney Sixers' Moises Henriques and Melbourne Renegades' Will Sutherland have missed the last two Sheffield Shield games and will again sit out Friday's final round before the BBL break.

Turner's absence would be a major blow for the five-time champions after the allrounder missed most of last season after sustaining a knee injury bowling his first delivery of the tournament.

The 31-year-old missed the Scorchers' final eight games of the campaign as they were bundled out by Adelaide Strikers in the Knockout final in front of their home fans.

Perth also could be without their pair of left-arm spin-bowling allrounders Cooper Connolly and Ashton Agar, with Connolly suffering a broken left hand after being hit by Mohammad Hasnain in the third ODI while Agar sprained his AC joint fielding in WA's Shield match against Victoria.

The Scorchers will open the BBL|14 season against Melbourne Stars at Optus Stadium in nine days' time on December 15.

The Stars are also sweating on the fitness of former captain Glenn Maxwell for that match after the Australian white-ball star suffered a grade two hamstring strain in the third T20I against Pakistan last month.

Maxwell had been eyeing an opportunity to push his case for next year's Test tour of Sri Lanka in one of Victoria's round five or six Shield fixtures against Queensland until injuring his left hamstring while fielding in Hobart on November 18.

The 36-year-old said recently he was "50-50" for the Stars' season opener against Perth and was wary of rushing back with the Sri Lanka tour and 50-over Champions Trophy on early next year.

"At this time of the year with the Big Bash coming back I need to get back to high intensity, high sprinting, so (the recovery) is probably going to take a little bit longer (than three weeks)," Maxwell said.

"There is so much to come. I don't really want to put that at risk by pushing it."

Henriques, who also leads the NSW Shield side, hasn't played since early November due to a groin niggle but said he should "well and truly" be ready to go for the Sixers' first game of the season against Melbourne Renegades on December 16.

Crosstown rivals Sydney Thunder – who will be led by David Warner in BBL|14 – have been boosted by Daniel Sams' return to the bowling crease at Premier Cricket level for Randwick-Petersham in the last fortnight.

Sams had been sidelined since June with a right knee injury which cut short his T20 Blast stint with Essex and ruled him out of the Hundred season where he was set to represent Northern Superchargers.

The left-armer sent down seven overs in a two-day fixture against Northern District for the impeccable return of 1-12 before smashing 66 not out with three sixes in an unbroken 86-run stand with his brother Anthony.

Fellow hard-hitting allrounder Sutherland is also nearing a return after sustaining a side strain in November's Shield loss to South Australia that curtailed his call-up to Australia's ODI squad.

Sutherland had been carefully managed through the opening months of the domestic season after overcoming back stress fractures for the second straight winter.

The Renegades' new full-time skipper told the Vic State Cricket Podcast this week he'd be back for the Big Bash and had used the recovery period to put some extra work into his batting.

Sutherland played as a specialist batter in the Second XI against Tasmania in Launceston last week where he scored 47 in the second innings.

"I'll be fresh with Big Bash, which I'm not normally after six Shield games to start the season," the 25-year-old said.

"I wasn't expecting it (the injury) because I was starting to build, that the bubble wrap had come off a little bit and I was starting to feel quite good.

"I was pretty flat … I'd been picked in the one-day squad, stay in Adelaide and then go to Perth and might have got a game there, so that didn't help with the frustration.

"I've been around the 'Gades for a while … and it's been a bit of a tough run.

"So (I want) to be one of the guys that gets us back to the top and getting an opportunity to captain and lead that way is really exciting."

In other injury news, star Brisbane Heat speedster Spencer Johnson suffered a toe injury playing for South Australia in the last Shield round while Thunder recruit Nic Maddinson underwent surgery on Thursday after breaking his finger playing grade cricket over the weekend.

The timeline for the pair's return in yet to be determined.

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