The Brisbane Heat could field as many as four debutants on Sunday for the opening round of the Weber Women’s Big Bash League at the Adelaide Oval with the naming of their squad today.
Heat Set For Season Opener
The Heat has named a 13-player squad for the clash with the Adelaide Strikers, a repeat of last year’s Final won by the home team in thrilling circumstances.
Potential WBBL first gamers for the match include Indian allrounder Shikha Pandey, leg-spinner Grace Parsons and allrounders Sianna Ginger and Ruby Strange.
Parsons, Ginger and Strange all played for the Heat in the recent T20 Spring Challenge where Brisbane reached the Final of the pre-season tournament, losing to Hobart off the final ball.
Parsons, 21, represented Australia ‘A’ against India ‘A’ last month, playing in all three formats. She missed the entire WBBL last season with a shoulder injury.
Strange, 21, was approved by the WBBL Technical Committee earlier this week to join the Heat as a local replacement player in place of fellow CQ product Bonnie Berry who has been sidelined with a back stress fracture.
A nursing student at Australian Catholic University, Strange is a right-handed top or middle order batter and right-arm medium fast bowler.
Pandey joins fellow internationals Nadine de Klerk and Lauren Winfield-Hill in the Heat squad for the opening match.
Winfield-Hill, who played for Brisbane in the first season of the WBBL, has signed as an International Replacement Player to cover for the absence of Indian international batter Jemimah Rodrigues for the first two games.
Brisbane will field three players – captain Jess Jonassen and the Harris sisters Grace and Laura – who have played all 10 seasons of the WBBL in the teal colours of the Heat.
Sunday’s season opener is the first game of a triple-header, with all the action covered live through Channel 7, 7Plus, Foxtel and Kayo. The ABC will also cover the match through the ABC Listen App and local stations.
Weber Women’s Big Bash League
Brisbane Heat v Adelaide Strikers
Adelaide Oval
12.40pm Qld time, Sunday
WBBL Brisbane Heat
21. Jess Jonassen (c)
8. Georgia Redmayne (v-c)
11. Sianna Ginger
5. Lucy Hamilton
44. Nicola Hancock
17. Grace Harris
4. Laura Harris
32. Nadine de Klerk (SA)
88. Charli Knott
12. Shikha Pandey (India)
34. Grace Parsons
25. Ruby Strange
58. Lauren Winfield-Hill (Eng)
Coaching staff: Mark Sorell, Jeff Thomas, Courtney Winfield-Hill, Cam Boyce.