Finding consistency crucial to Perth Scorchers’ chances of making finals

WOMEN'S BIG BASH LEAGUE PREVIEW - PERTH SCORCHERS: Megastar Meg Lanning and last year’s joint top wicket-taker Heather Graham could lead the Scorchers to finals day after narrowly missing out

Coach: Lisa Keightley

Captain: Meg Lanning

Overseas players: Amy Jones, Natalie Sciver (both England), Kim Garth (Ireland)

Australia national team players: Nicole Bolton, Meg Lanning (both centrally contracted)

Last season: Fifth

How did they do last season? Consistently inconsistent. Beat Adelaide Strikers by 10 wickets at home but lost away. Won a couple of tight games but defeated comfortably in many others.

Key players

Meg Lanning: The ‘Megastar’ was the leading run-scorer in the first two WBBL seasons and hit 389 runs at 48.62 last season, the second-best average in the division. Will be even more important given Elyse Villani’s move to the Stars.

Heather Graham: The 23-year-old jointly led the league’s wickets standings with an astonishing 22 at 16.95 and a strike rate of just 13.8. Made a disappointing 161 in 10 innings across 14 games but will look to improve on this.

Nicole Bolton: Bolton, who scored a century on debut for Australia against England at the MCG, played every match last season and took the second-most wickets for the side with 12 at 18.66. Added a reasonable 192 with the bat as well.

^{Nat Sciver is a high-class overseas recruit for Perth}

Strengths

A solid spine of Australian internationals both young and old and an inspirational captain. However, six out of seven defeats came by four wickets or more is cause for concern. Kath Hempenstall is back after a four-year hiatus with a point to prove.

Weaknesses

Massively reliant on Heather Graham, nominally a batsman, for wickets; Nicole Bolton, who took the second-most for the Scorchers, took 12 to Graham’s 22. Their top run-scorer last season Villani has left for Melbourne.

England involvement

Internationals Amy Jones and Natalie Sciver will represent the Poms at Perth. Jones, who has played 20 ODIs and 15 T20Is for England, continues her Scorchers spell while Sciver returns after a year away from the WBBL. In 2017-18, ultra-experienced Sciver starred in Perth’s run to the final.

Squad: Meg Lanning, Jemma Barsby, Samantha Betts, Nicole Bolton, Mathilda Carmichael, Piepa Cleary, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Kath Hempenstall, Amy Jones, Emma King, Taneale Peschel, Chloe Piparo, Georgia Redmayne, Natalie Sciver

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