The Perth Scorchers will host the Adelaide Strikers at Optus Stadium on Saturday evening for a must-win Big Bash League Knockout.
The reigning champions, who finished third on the BBL ladder this summer, will need to topple the dangerous Strikers to book their spot in Monday’s Challenger against the Brisbane Heat at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast.
Both sides have lost a handful of superstars from their squads, with Laurie Evans, Jamie Overton and Chris Lynn flying over to the United Arab Emirates for ILT20 commitments.
The Knockout gets underway at 7.40pm AEDT.
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Bartlett eyes T20 world cup dream | 01:07
It prompted the Heat to name a surprise new top order for the clash, with young gun Sam Fanning handed his BBL debut alongside the returning Marcus Harris.
“We speak a lot about brave, team-first cricket and that’s all we ask of our players,” Scorchers coach Adam Voges said.
“He’s [Fanning] been in great form… I was really impressed with him in some of the trial games we played before the tournament.
“I think he’ll come out and take the game on.”
Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist had more doubt over the decision to also bump skipper Aaron Hardie down to spot four in the batting order.
“I’m not so sure that’s the right thing to do with this team,” he said on Fox Cricket’s coverage.
“I think Aaron Hardie is the anchor at number three, he’s been brilliant for a couple of years but we’ll see.”
The Scorchers won the bat flip and decided to bowl first.
Meanwhile, as if a must-win game was not motivation enough, Strikers coach Jason Gillespie gave his team another reason to aim up on Saturday after something on the Optus Stadium big screen caught his attention.
Mike Hussey revealed on Fox Cricket that he had gone up to Gillespie pre-game for a chat only for the Scorchers ground staff to put up a message on the screen celebrating Perth progressing through to the Challenger.
While obviously a harmless run-through, Gillespie quickly called on one of his staff members to snap a photo.
“Yeah, wasn’t happy with that when we arrived at the ground,” he told Fox Cricket.
“[I] thought, ‘Geez, they’re jumping the gun a bit here in the west. I might have got a photo to show the boys.”
SCORCHERS XI
Marcus Harris, Sam Fanning, Sam Whiteman, Aaron Hardie (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Cooper Connolly, Nick Hobson, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Lance Morris
STRIKERS XI
Matt Short (c), D’Arcy Short, Jake Weatherald, Thomas Kelly, Harry Nielsen (wk), Ben Manenti, James Bazley, Henry Thornton, David Payne, Cameron Boyce, Lloyd Pope
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