Shaun Marsh is angry, and that spells bad news for the Melbourne Renegades. Marsh will line up for the Perth Scorchers in Wednesday night's BBL clash with the Renegades after being squeezed out of the Australian Test side.
The 32-year-old was dropped for the Boxing Day Test against the West Indies despite scoring a career-high 182 in the previous match. He also scored a match-winning 49 last month in the series-deciding Test against New Zealand in Adelaide.
The harsh selection decision means Marsh could only watch on as Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja posted Boxing Day centuries against the hapless West Indies.
Marsh will now get the chance to take out his frustrations on the Renegades after being released from 12th man Test duties. "Shaun is one of the best Twenty20 players in the world," Scorchers coach Justin Langer said.
"And when Shaun Marsh gets angry and hungry, then that's when I like having him in the team. "I reckon there'll be a bit of that after missing the last Test match, so he'll be welcomed back with open arms. "Hopefully he does want to prove a point that he should be in the Australian side, whether it's the Test side, one-day side, or Twenty20 side."
Both the Scorchers and Renegades have a 1-1 record, placing extra importance on Wednesday's match at Etihad Stadium. Perth will again back their strong bowling attack after putting the screws on the Heat last week. With Jason Behrendorff, David Willey, Andrew Tye and Brad Hogg all firing, the Scorchers restricted Brisbane to 7-117 on the way to a nine-wicket win.
Behrendorff snared 2-32 in his return from back soreness and he doesn't want the issue to pop up again. "Hopefully I'll be able to play every game, that's my goal," Behrendorff said.
"It was just a little bit of a flare-up in the same sort of area in my lower back [where I had a stress fracture last year]. "The scans showed just a little bit of inflammation, and we're just trying to monitor that and make sure it doesn't get any worse."
.png)