The underrated BBL gun that helped make Starc call 'easy'

Overlooked in the will-he, won't-he narrative of Mitchell Starc's mooted return for the KFC BBL finals was one of the league's unheralded achievers.

Ben Dwarshuis might not have the pace or profile of Starc but the reliable left-arm quick enters Saturday's final against the Perth Scorchers as one of the league's most underrated performers of recent seasons.

Even the most rusted-on Sydney Sixers fans would likely be unaware that only one fast bowler (Sydney Thunder's Daniel Sams) has taken more wickets than Ben Dwarshuis over the past three BBL seasons.

Among all bowlers only Sams (56 wickets), Rashid Khan (54) have fared better than Dwarshuis (53, the same as Adam Zampa), putting him in the top echelon of BBL bowlers despite rarely getting mentioned in the same breath as them. 

Sixers skipper Moises Henriques said the success of a Dwarshuis-led bowling attack this season meant they had the luxury of not pushing Starc too hard to return.

"That (the Sixers' bowling success) made the decision even easier to be honest," said Henriques, who added that Starc remains one of the best T20 bowlers in the world. "He was fifty-fifty and not sure about what he should do (but) it was a pretty easy decision.

"If he comes in, he robs someone's spot who has done really well all season and got us here. If his body is not quite right, there was no need to push it for this one game."

Dwarshuis would have been mightily unlucky if it had been his spot that was in the gun, but the 26-year-old would have had no qualms.

"If he had come back and played that would have been a great thing for the team," he told cricket.com.au. "If that happened and I did have to sit out and it was the best thing for the team – if that's how it would have had to go, then that's how it would have had to go."

With his place for the BBL decider assured, expect to see Dwarshuis once again entrusted with the "ugly overs" against the Scorchers.

Only Sams has taken more wickets at the death (in the final five overs) than Dwarshuis over the past three seasons, while his economy rate of 6.62 in the Powerplay is among the most frugal during that period.

Henriques stressed that Dwarshuis' overall economy rate of 8.81 in BBL|10 is blown out by how regularly he is required to bowl with only two fielders out on the boundary or at an unfavourable end where a short boundary tempts batters.

"He's been outstanding and he has been in T20 cricket for a quite a few years now," said Henriques.

"He bowls all the tough overs – if you look at the stats at the end of the year and the economy rates, you might overlook someone like Benny, but what you don't take into account is he often bowls to the short boundary, in the Power Surge, at the death – all the really ugly overs for bowlers.

"As a captain and as a playing group, we all acknowledge the hard work he does for us. He's been doing those ugly overs for a quite a while now."

Dwarshuis' skill was recognised in 2018 when he was a surprise pick for Australia's T20 tour of New Zealand, before earning an Indian Premier League contract with Kings XI Punjab.

But he rode the bench for both campaigns and a succession of stress fractures forced him into electing to go in for radical back surgery (the same procedure James Pattinson and Jason Behrendorff have undergone) the following year.

"It definitely was a difficult decision. Back surgery – when you hear those words it's quite a scary thing," Dwarshuis said of the operation.

"The surgeon was really good, he told me for a back surgery it was relatively low risk – he'd done them in the past and they had all gone really well, blokes who had it done all had positive reviews and they'd all gone back to play some high-class cricket.

"With my back the way it was at the time, it wasn't in a good place, so I thought it was a risk worth taking. There was enough of an upside to make it worth it. It's something I'm really glad I did."

The surgery has been a major success but while he has become a mainstay for the Sixers, Dwarshuis has still played just three one-day games for New South Wales in seven-and-a-half years of being contracted with the Blues.

The increased confidence that he now has in his body has him optimistic he is now up to the rigours of first-class cricket.

"It's been frustrating more from the injury point of view more than anything else," he said of his time with the Blues.

"It's been a challenge over the last four or five years to have a consistent run on the park to put my name forward for selection.

"The last two years since the back surgery have been really good, hopefully a bit of patience and persistence pays off in the end."

BBL|10 Finals Series
(all matches will screen on Channel 7, Fox Cricket & Kayo)

The Eliminator: Brisbane Heat (4) beat Adelaide Strikers (5) by six wickets

The Qualifier: Sydney Sixers (1) beat Perth Scorchers (2) by nine wickets

The Knock-Out: Brisbane Heat (4) beat Sydney Thunder (3) by seven wickets

The Challenger: Perth Scorchers (2) beat Brisbane Heat (4) by 49 runs (DLS)

The Final: Sydney Sixers v Perth Scorchers. Sat Feb 6, SCG, 7.40pm AEDT