Big Bash League: Perth Scorchers leave door open to Ashton Turner playing first match despite injury

Perth Scorchers are still hopeful captain Ashton Turner could play in their blockbuster season opener against Melbourne Stars, despite suffering a rib injury just days ago. It comes as star trio Cooper Connolly, Aaron Hardie and Ashton Agar all race to be fit for the start of the season. Connolly is the most likely of those to be fit in time. The young gun’s call to have surgery on his broken finger has fast-tracked his recovery. The West Australian revealed at the weekend Turner had been injured playing Premier Cricket for Fremantle on Saturday. That was first believed to be a side strain by Scorchers medical staff, with tests this week revealing Turner had actually suffered a rib injury. That news has boosted hopes of the middle-order star being fit in the time to face the Stars on December 15. But a return in time for their second game of the tournament, against Hobart on December 21, is more likely. “It was a bit of a strange one,” Scorchers cricket boss Kade Harvey told The West. “We are working to a gameplan of him being available game one. “There is a little bit of water to go under the bridge, but we are certainly hopeful, as with a couple of our players that the first game is probably going to be a little bit tight. “We should have a few more hands on deck by game two, just with those six days in between, we feel like we will get back to what our team might look like. “We will work through that over the next little bit, because it is going to be tight with some of those guys, but just knowing we have got some depth in the squad and they tend to be short-term challenges. “We’re hopeful that Ash will be there game one.” Harvey said doctors were “most bullish” on Connolly after he injured his hand playing a one-day international against Pakistan in Perth last month, while Agar is racing to recover in time from a sprained AC joint in his shoulder. Hardie’s availability will be decided in concert with Cricket Australia, who have had their fingerprints over his recovery from a quad issue. Speedster Jhye Richardson has been managed out of the Sheffield Shield clash with New South Wales from Friday with the start of the Big Bash League in mind, while fellow quick Matt Kelly is in line to start the Scorchers’ season, despite missing recent four-day matches with a quad issue of his own. Scorchers international Keaton Jennings arrived in Perth early at the weekend to give himself longer to prepare for the tournament after three months without playing cricket. Fellow Englishman Matthew Hurst also landed in Perth on Thursday, with Finn Allen to lob after the Abu Dhabi T10 competition in coming days.