Hurricanes skipper ruled out of clash with Stars as English allrounder Rehan Ahmed also departs for international duties
Injured Ellis to miss Knockout as Weatherald prioritises Shield
Hobart Hurricanes captain Nathan Ellis will miss his side's sudden-death Knockout final against Melbourne Stars after injuring himself in their final match of the regular season.
Ellis was able to complete his four overs in their narrow loss to Brisbane Heat last Wednesday and was not out at the end as the Hurricanes saw their hopes of a top two finish slip away in the final over.
But the club confirmed this afternoon Ellis had been ruled out of tomorrow's home final against the Stars with an unspecified niggle. The right-armer has a big month ahead of him as a key part of Australia's pace attack for the T20 World Cup beginning on February 7.
English allrounder Rehan Ahmed will also be missing for the Hurricanes' finals campaign after departing for international duties. The 21-year-old is part of England's T20 World Cup squad with Harry Brook's side to warm-up for next month's tournament with ODI and T20 series in Sri Lanka beginning on Thursday.
Hobart Hurricanes squad for Knockout: Jackson Bird, Nikhil Chaudhary, Rishad Hossain, Chris Jordan, Ben McDermott (c), Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Will Prestwidge, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade, Charlie Wakim, Tim Ward, Beau Webster, Mac Wright
Ins: Jackson Bird, Charlie Wakim. Outs: Rehan Ahmed (national duties), Nathan Ellis (injured)
Veteran paceman Jackson Bird and batter Charlie Wakim have been brought into the Hurricanes squad to face the Stars, while Ben McDermott will lead the side in Ellis' absence.
It comes as the Hurricanes also confirmed Jake Weatherald would not feature in their finals campaign with the Test opener all-in on red-ball cricket for the second half of the domestic summer.
Weatherald, who signed with the Hurricanes during the off-season after nine years with Adelaide Strikers, hasn't played since Australia's 4-1 Ashes triumph and Hobart coach Jeff Vaughan today confirmed the left-hander would miss the entire KFC BBL|15 season.
Vaughan said Weatherald didn't feel ready to play T20 cricket following his debut Test series, a decision he reiterated Cricket Tasmania supported.
He said it was not uncommon for Weatherald, who also plays his state cricket with Tasmania, to sit out one-day games scheduled around Sheffield Shield matches to ensure he was giving himself the best opportunity to perform in the first-class format.
Weatherald has only played Tasmania's first two 50-over matches in September so far this season, while he played four of seven One-Day Cup fixtures last summer where he produced a career-best 906-run Shield campaign that led to him earning a Baggy Green cap in November.
"Through lots of good conversations with Jake, Cricket Australia and us as an organisation, Jake doesn't feel ready to play this format of the game or play white-ball cricket right at the moment," Vaughan told reporters in Hobart today.
"(He) really wants to focus on his red-ball cricket at the back end of the summer.
"He's had a huge Ashes year and an incredibly exciting summer for him, and to play a full summer of Test cricket is pretty arduous both physically and mentally, so he won't be turning out for us over the finals.
"Obviously, he's a high-quality player; we'd love to have Jake playing any format of the game whenever he is available for us.
"But he doesn't feel ready right at the moment and we'll support that throughout."
Weatherald showed glimpses during his five Tests against England with a top score of 72 in the first innings of the pink-ball clash at the Gabba, while also sharing several solid opening partnerships with Travis Head.
But he was exposed at times by England's quicks to full, inswinging deliveries and with 201 runs at 22.33, he is yet to nail down his spot ahead of Australia's next Test series against Bangladesh in the middle of the year.
Vaughan said the 31-year-old would be back in action for Tasmania when the Shield season resumes after the Big Bash on February 5 and was determined to prove he should be the one to continue to partner Head.
"It's something that he's done through our white ball 50-over campaign as well, when there's 50-over matches in and around the Shield cricket, he just feels as though he wants to be best prepared for Shield cricket," Vaughan said.
"Straight after this tournament, we go into Shield cricket, and he really wants to have a good back end of the year and to continue his dominance at a domestic level and ensure that he is the number one opening batter in Australia."
Meanwhile, Stars skipper Marcus Stoinis doesn't envisage any changes to his line-up to face the Hurricanes at Ninja Stadium with the club seeking to win their first BBL finals match in six years.
The Stars missed a chance to claim top spot and a double chance when they lost their last match of the regular season to Perth Scorchers, but Stoinis believes the group is better placed this finals campaign than they were last season when they snuck into the final four.
"It's a great position to be in for the last game of the season to have that ability to finish top of the ladder, so it shows that we've been playing good cricket," he said.
"The boys are really confident. It's quite a stark difference to last year with scraping in. (This season) it was a more measured way of locking (finals) in a game early and having that final spot in our own hands as to where we finish.
"Obviously, we would have liked to have finished on top but it doesn't matter, we just have to do it a different way now.
"If we play the way that we know we can play, and it's not people doing super special things, it's just consistent performances that we've had throughout the whole (tournament).
Melbourne Stars squad for Knockout: Hilton Cartwright, Joe Clarke, Tom Curran, Sam Harper, Liam Hatcher, Campbell Kellaway, Blake Macdonald, Glenn Maxwell, Hamish McKenzie, Haris Rauf, Tom Rogers, Peter Siddle, Marcus Stoinis (c), Mitch Swepson
Unchanged
"Our bowling attack – we've got three guys (Haris Rauf, Peter Siddle and Tom Curran) in the top five of the wickets (tally), we've got a class leg-spinner (Mitch Swepson) and we've got a guy batting up the top of the order (Sam Harper) that's third on the leading run-scorers list.
"We've got guys contributing all the way through."
BBL|15 finals schedule
Qualifier: Perth Scorchers v Sydney Sixers, Optus Stadium (Tuesday, January 20, 7.30pm AEDT)
Knockout: Hobart Hurricanes v Melbourne Stars, Ninja Stadium (Wednesday, January 21, 7.30pm AEDT)
Challenger: Loser of Qualifier v winner of Knockout, TBC (Friday, January 23, 7.15pm AEDT)
Final: Winner of Qualifier v winner of Challenger, TBC (Sunday, January 25, 7.15pm AEDT)
*A reserve day on Monday, January 26 (7.15pm AEDT) is available for the Final
KFC BBL|15 standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
SCO
|
10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.363 | 0 | 14 |
|
2
SIX
|
10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.605 | 0 | 13 |
|
3
HUR
|
10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.331 | 0 | 13 |
|
4
STA
|
10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.759 | 0 | 12 |
|
5
HEA
|
10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -0.431 | 0 | 10 |
|
6
STR
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -0.231 | 0 | 8 |
|
7
REN
|
10 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.202 | 0 | 6 |
|
8
THU
|
10 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | -1.212 | 0 | 4 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points