Heat back depth to cover for injured Harris

Brisbane Heat are backing their batting depth to help them cover the absence of one of the game’s most devastating strikers through the early stages of their Weber WBBL|09 campaign.

Laura Harris missed the Heat's tournament opener against Melbourne Renegades with a calf injury, having already sat out the second round of domestic one-day matches against Victoria a week earlier.

The timeline for the hard-hitting Queenslander’s return is TBC but Brisbane started the season with an ominous display in excellent batting conditions at the CitiPower Centre, piling on 9-187 despite no player passing fifty.

Grace Harris and Georgia Redmayne laid the foundation scoring 49 apiece, while lower-order contributions included knocks of 23 off 12 balls from Charli Knott, and Mikayla Hinkley’s 17no off eight.

"We like to play an aggressive game and that's what all of our girls did out there," Knott told cricket.com.au after the Heat closed out a tight six-run win.

"We were eight down but we still managed to make 190 so I think that shows how we like to play our cricket and that will be the way forward.

"We have a lot of batting depth without (Laura Harris) in the team and when we do get her back, it'll just strengthen our lineup even further.

"It's a shame that we don't have her, but no doubt we'll all be very excited when she comes back into the squad."

Knott's cameo included just the third six of her WBBL career from 21 innings.

The 20-year-old, who was part of the Australia A squad that travelled to the United Kingdom during the winter, has been working to build her power game and is pleased to see the hard yards paying off.

"(I'm always working on) power game improvement, especially in the T20 game.

"It's ever evolving, trying to improve my power game is always a focus of mine and I was happy to get a few runs out there today … it's been a work in progress over several years and it's nice to see some results out there in the middle today."

The Heat are not the only WBBL team starting their seasons without core squad members.

Hobart Hurricanes went into their first game against Perth Scorchers without captain Elyse Villani and key allrounder Nicola Carey.

While the former was ruled out with illness and is expected to return for Hobart's second game, also against the Scorchers, at the WACA Ground on Wednesday, Carey is expected to miss at least one more match.

Australia fast bowler Darcie Brown has been ruled out of Adelaide Strikers' opening game with a hamstring injury.

The 20-year-old will be reassessed following Saturday's match against Melbourne Stars at Karen Rolton Oval.

Weber WBBL|09 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Adelaide Strikers Women STR	14	11	3	0	0	1.154	0	22
2 Perth Scorchers Women SCO	14	8	6	0	0	0.784	0	16
3 Brisbane Heat Women HEA	14	8	6	0	0	0.203	0	16
4 Sydney Thunder Women THU	14	7	6	0	1	0.298	0	15
5 Sydney Sixers Women SIX	14	7	7	0	0	-0.253	0	14
6 Hobart Hurricanes Women HUR	14	6	7	0	1	-0.597	0	13
7 Melbourne Stars Women STA	14	6	8	0	0	-0.779	0	12
8 Melbourne Renegades Women REN	14	2	12	0	0	-0.978	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points