Test star back for Big Bash

CRICKET: Dumped Test batsman Pete Handscomb is likely to open the batting for Melbourne Stars tonight as pressure builds on partner Ben Dunk to finally end his runs drought.

Handscomb and Dunk opened the batting together in four of the final five BBL games last season and averaged 18.5 runs for the first wicket.

They enter tonight’s clash against Sydney Sixers at the SCG in the spotlight for different reasons.

Cricket Australia yesterday released Handscomb from the Test squad to play Big Bash and the 27-year-old will add some much-needed polish in the field after the Stars put down four costly catches in their 0-2 start to the summer.

The former wicketkeeper – cut from the Boxing Day team after scoring just 68 runs in the first two matches against India – boasts some of the safest hands in the land while youngster Nick Larkin has been responsible for three of the fumbles.

Dunk is averaging just 10.6 runs from his past 12 BBL matches, where he has scored 127 runs at a poor strike-rate of 102.4.

The gloveman is just two games into the second season of a five-year contract at the Stars, which will backfire unless Dunk can rediscover the form that twice made him the BBL’s leading run-scorer.

The Stars must decide whether to partner Dunk at the top of the order with either Handscomb or powerful batsman Marcus Stoinis.

Whoever does not open will instead play a finishing role in the middle order.