CANES FACE HUGE TEST

Two imports missing in action as Hurricanes tackle Lanning

THE Hobart Hurricanes will open their WBBL account against one of the world’s best batters who is out with a point to prove.

Australian captain Meg Lanning, fresh from World T20 glory in the Caribbean, will make her Perth Scorchers debut at Melbourne’s Junction Oval against Hobart this morning after missing all last WBBL season — her first in orange having left the Melbourne Stars — with a shoulder injury.

New Hurricanes coach Salliann Briggs said it was best to tackle the greatest first up.

“She’s a quality player, but she will have her own pressures playing for the Scorchers for the first time and also having not played in the WBBL for over a season,” Briggs said.

“I think when you come up against players like that it is always best to play them in the first game because you just never know.”

The Hurricanes are yet to settle on their side but will be without overseas players, England’s Heather Knight and India’s Smriti Mandhana, as they make their way to Australia. However, despite this Briggs said the loss of these two batters, the Hurricanes would target the Scorchers bowlers.

“Although we’ve not got our full strength team, we are playing against the Scorchers, which — in my opinion — is not a formidable bowling account so we hope we are going to be really competitive and start with a win,” she said.

Penetration with the ball has been a weakness for the Hurricanes, who only took 40 wickets in 14 games last season on the way to their first WBBL wooden spoon.

“Having spoken to the bowlers about the plans for last year, a lot of their plans were bowling outside off stump so naturally you are possibly not going to take as many wickets if you are taking out bowled and lbw,” Briggs said.

“We’ve looked at that and we’ve changed the way we want to bowl and as you can see from the WNCL, we are bowling teams out now.”

West Indian all-rounder Hayley Matthews will be Hobart’s sole import.

She has batted everywhere in the top five, but Briggs said the explosive 20-year-old would face as many balls as possible.

“We want to make sure she’s in our powerplay so she will be definitely be in our top three. That’s why we’ve paid her to come over, so she can utilise her skills. We know how explosive and powerful she is and whenever you get an overseas player as a batter, you want them facing as many balls as possible.”

Today’s game starts at 10.40am.