The Hobart Hurricanes will welcome former Test captain Tim Paine into their side on Saturday after captain Matthew Wade was hit with a one-game ban.
Paine is a confirmed starter for Hobart’s clash with the Melbourne Renegades having been brought into the squad to replace Wade.
Hobart won the toss and chose to bat first at Blundstone Arena but the hosts will also be without opener Ben McDermott due to injury, with New Zealander international Jimmy Neesham slated to open the batting.
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In a statement released by the Tasmanian team, Wade “incurred one suspension point after incurring three Level 1 Code of Conduct breaches within 18 months”.
The charges in that space of time relate to “two instances of an audible obscenity” as well as “one instance of abuse of cricket equipment” and the 34-year-old was recently in the headlines for an incident involving Scorchers recruit Faf du Plessis.
MATCH CENTRE: Hobart Hurricanes vs Melbourne Renegades, live scores, teams
Wade yelled “bowled” before the South African could play a shot, as a Paddy Dooley delivery crashed into his stumps after backing away.
Paine will play his first BBL game since February 2018 after being included in the Hurricanes’ 15-man squad earlier on Saturday. The wicketkeeper announced his resignation as Australia’s Test cricket captain in 2021 after a sexting scandal involving a co-worker.
“We know he’s made his name in Test cricket and led Australia beautifully, but he loves playing on the big occasion down here at his home ground,” former Australia star Brad Haddin said on the Fox Cricket commentary.
“He’ll be excited, he’ll bring a lot of epxerience and tidiness behind the stumps. But look at him to play a bigger role than you’d expect with the bat.”
Gun opener Ben McDermott will also miss the clash due to a hamstring injury after leading the runs leaderboard in BBL11.
Meanwhile, the Renegades are currently unbeaten after three games, remaining the only team to have not suffered a loss.
Last season, the Melbourne side in red finished dead last, but in BBL12 have emerged as genuine contenders off the back of impressive performances by Nic Maddinson, Aaron Finch and West Indies gun Akeal Hosein.
Star seamer Kane Richardson has also been rested for Melbourne, with David Moody taking his place.
TEAMS
Hurricanes XI: D’Arcy Short, James Neesham, Caleb Jewell, Shadab Khan, Tim David, Asif Ali, Tim Paine (wk), Joel Paris, Nathan Ellis (c), Paddy Dooley, Riley Meredith
Renegades XI: Nic Maddinson (c), Sam Harper (wk), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Finch, Jonathan Wells, Andre Russell, Akeal Hosein, Will Sutherland, Tom Rogers, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, David Moody
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