CLT20 bite-size preview: Perth Scorchers

Cricket365
September 11, 2014

They've never made it past the group stage though, but we reckon they'll pull it out of the bright orange hat this time.

Brief Overview: The Scorchers come into the tournament as the Big Bash champions, and this is their third time competing in the CLT20. They've never made it past the group stage though, but we reckon they'll pull it out of the bright orange hat this time.

Key Strength:They have a very strong pack of all-rounders, with Mitchell Marsh in good form with both bat and ball, and Ashton Agar providing the spin power along with his batting. Whether 'all-rounder' means 'average on all fronts' in reality remains to be seen.

Probable Weakness: They don't have Simon Katich, their best scorer in the BBL, and their next best batsman was a club player with no first class caps before the BBL took a punt on him. Shaun Marsh is unavailable due to injury. The top order looks fragile.

Batsman To Watch: We'd like to say club player Craig Simmons, purely for excitement's sake, but it must be Mitchell Marsh, who had a great tri-series in Zimbabwe recently, with some rapid knocks helping them to the final.

Bowler To Watch: Pakistani paceman Yasir Arafat was their BBL star, recording the best figures and bagging 12 wickets. Whether his pace will be rewarded on Indian decks is the question, and also whether he can keep the runs down.

Squad: Ashton Agar, Yasir Arafat, Michael Beer, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Brad Hogg, Simon Mackin, Mitchell Marsh, Joel Paris, Craig Simmons, Ashton Turner, Adam Voges, Sam Whiteman.

Toughest Fixture: The Chennai Super Kings will be a beat of a fixture, as it's later in the tournament and could dictate final four places. It happens on 27 September in Bangalore and CSK are always a tough prospect, even more so when they're under pressure.

They Said: Coach Justin Langer: "Our goal is to go there and win the Champions League. It's the Australian way to look to win every game of cricket we play. The NSW [New South Wales] team won it a few years ago, and that's a good trend to follow. We're massive underdogs, and that's not a bad thing to be for an Aussie."

Cricket365's Prediction: Losing semi-finalists.