BBL|12 preview: Opportunity beckons for Perth's next gen

Can the Scorchers become five-time champions in just the twelfth edition of the KFC BBL? 

With another strong squad – complete with a multitude of powerful allrounders – it's hard to mount a case as to why they couldn't as they look to defend their title once again.

The addition of Faf du Plessis for a seven-game stint will ease the pain of losing both Mitch Marsh and English power-hitter Phil Salt for the season, while Cameron Green's arrival for a short period of the tournament in between Test series will be must-watch.

The young allrounder turned heads with his brace of half-centuries opening the batting during Australia's tour of India this year, but with the Scorchers' plethora of top-order options it remains to be seen whether he will lead his side out to bat when available.

The emergence of Aaron Hardie for WA in the past 12 months will be another confidence-booster for Perth, with the 24-year-old looking to cement his spot in the side while Green is away on Test duties.

But the experience of the likes of Ashton Agar, Ashton Turner, AJ Tye, Jason Behrendorff and du Plessis will again keep the Scorchers right in the frame for another BBL title. 

BBL|11 result: Champions 

BBL|12 Draft Picks: Laurie Evans* (12th – Gold), Phil Salt* (19th – Silver), Tymal Mills* (30th – Bronze). * – withdrawn  

Squad: Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Tymal Mills (England), Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye. Replacement players: Faf du Plessis (South Africa), Adam Lyth (England), Stephen Eskinazi (England), Hamish McKenzie, David Payne (England)

Ins: Cameron Green, Faf du Plessis  

Outs: David Moody Melbourne Renegades), Laurie Evans, Colin Munro (Brisbane Heat), Kurtis Patterson (Sydney Sixers)

Possible best XI: Faf du Plessis, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis (wk), Cameron Bancroft, Nick Hobson, Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Tymal Mills 

Possible best XI for first game: Faf du Plessis, Cameron Bancroft, Josh Inglis (wk), Nick Hobson, Aaron Hardie, Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Tymal Mills 

Inside word with coach Adam Voges 

Draft strategy

"With success last year, the goal was to try and keep as many of our group together as possible as it helped us to have success last year, so from a local perspective we've done that really well. Kurtis Patterson has moved to the Sixers but we've been able to get Cameron Green in for the back half of the tournament, so we've done that nicely.

"But in the draft, well that probably hasn't turned out exactly how we'd hoped in terms of losing a couple of our overseas options, but we're working through the background just to make sure that we put the best team possible out there in round one."

The Faf factor 

"It's great to have Faf come in, we'll certainly welcome his experience for the first half of the tournament. He's a world-class player so any time you can bring someone of that calibre into your group it can only be a good thing, albeit it's only for half the tournament. Faf, with his experience playing around the world and playing a lot of international cricket, for our guys to be around him, I think they'll learn a lot. Hopefully he can perform well for us out the middle, but we'll take more than just the runs he scores for us."

How to cover the loss of Mitch Marsh? 

"No doubt Mitch is a huge loss for us, to have our No.3 and one of the most destructive players in the Big Bash and in world cricket, to lose him on the eve of the tournament is obviously tough news. But we learnt a way to win without Mitch last year, we only had him for half the games so it'll be an opportunity for other guys, I think of Cameron Bancroft and Nick Hobson, they didn't get as many opportunities last year as they would've liked and it opens the door for one of those guys to get more game time and show what they can do."

Breakout star

"We didn't see a lot of Nick Hobson last year. He's someone that we certainly here in Perth rate really highly, a left-hander with a lot of power. He played a couple of games last year and as I mentioned with the loss of Mitch and the overseas players, I think it he'll certainly get more opportunity. Cooper Connolly is another one who may not play much this year, he may get an opportunity for a game or two but he's a pretty exciting talent." 

Who bats where when Cameron Green is available? 

"I think the hole is at three now, so who ends up taking that spot is something we're still working around. You've got Ashton Turner, Aaron Hardie through the middle and Josh Inglis could be a bit flexible for us and he's a really quality player of spin. I'm really looking forward to having him a lot more available this year than what we did last year with his involvement with the Test squad. Inglis in particular will be a really important part of that, his flexibility in that top four and his ability to play spin because we know teams tend to target us pretty heavily there."

Back-to-back 

"We've got to start fresh. We know the type of cricket that we want to play and we know what helps us be successful, so (it's) making sure we take the lessons from last year and keep building on them, that's the key. 

"Getting back to Optus Stadium and playing in front of our home fans, we missed that certainly last year and over the last couple years with Covid, so getting back home and actually having a really strong home record is going be an important part of that too." 

Biggest threat

"You could name them all, I think that's the beauty of the Big Bash is that any team could win it and any team on their day could beat anyone. I still think the Sixers are the ones to beat, we've got a great rivalry against them and I'm really looking forward to starting our campaign against them on the 17th (of December in Perth)."