Despite the Perth Scorchers' first-up flop, skipper Marcus North is backing his high-profile batting line-up to bounce back to form in Thursday night's T20 Big Bash showdown against the Melbourne Renegades at Docklands.
South African Herschelle Gibbs (2), England's Paul Collingwood (4), former Test opener Simon Katich (8) and veteran Mike Hussey (0) all failed to fire in the Scorchers' lacklustre 31-run loss to Hobart Hurricanes on Sunday.
Perth has made two changes to its squad for the clash with the Renegades, replacing Hussey (national duties) and Tom Beaton with batsman Craig Simmons and left-arm paceman Josh Lalor.
And the Scorchers are holding out faint hope that Shaun Marsh, who is still trying to prove his fitness in time for the Boxing Day Test, will be made available against the Renegades should he miss Test selection.
"Shaun will have a couple of days batting at the camp in Melbourne and hopefully he can impress the Australian coaching staff and selectors that he is right to go on Boxing Day," Scorchers coach Lachlan Stevens said.
"But if they would like him to have a run somewhere prior to that we would certainly love to have him playing for the Scorchers."
North was confident the team's woeful batting display against Hobart - in which the Scorchers slumped to 4 for 28 before being bowled out for 109 - would prove to be nothing more than an aberration.
"There's not too many times you're going to have Gibbs, Collingwood, Katich and Hussey all missing out," North said.
"I thought the balance was pretty good.
"We had a mixture of the guys that are going to take the game away and guys that can control a game.
"It was a poor performance. But whether that means we had the wrong order - I don't think so."
The Renegades will also be looking to bounce back with a win after their dismal 67-run loss to the Adelaide Strikers on Sunday.
Perth squad:
Marcus North (capt), Michael Beer, Paul Collingwood, Ben Edmondson, Herschelle Gibbs, Brad Hogg, Simon Katich, Josh Lalor, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan Rimmington, Luke Ronchi, Craig Simmons. (12th man).
AAP
Tags: twenty20, cricket, sport, perth-6000, wa, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted December 20, 2011 17:46:16
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