BBL: Sydney Sixers sign Jake Ball as Tom Curran's replacement
Dec 10, 2020
Sydney [Australia], December 10 : Sydney Sixers on Thursday confirmed the signing of England pacer Jake Ball ahead of the upcoming edition of the Big Bash League (BBL).
Ball will leave South Africa today, where he has been a member of England's white-ball tour squad and will join the defending BBL champions post-Christmas once he has completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
His signing comes after England teammate Tom Curran requested a release from his Sixers contract for this season due to fatigue associated with travelling and playing within bio-security restrictions.
Ball has played for England in all three forms of the game and comes to the Sixers highly recommended by star recruit Dan Christian, who captained Ball at English county Nottinghamshire.
"Jake has been a mainstay of our Nottinghamshire attack in my time there over the last six seasons, leading us to the domestic T20 titles in 2017, and again this year in 2020," Christian said in an official release.
"I didn't hesitate to put Jake's name forward upon hearing that Tom Curran was unfortunately unavailable. As the leading wicket-taker in the T20 Blast this year, I've got no doubt that he'll help us win games here at the Sixers. I can't wait to pull on the magenta with him," he added.
The pace bowler will add to the Sixers' bowling stocks that include Ben Dwarshuis, Jackson Bird, Gurinder Sandhu, Lloyd Pope, Ben Manenti, and veteran tweaker Steve O'Keefe.
BBL is slated to start later today and the first match of the tournament will be played between Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes.
The Sixers' BBL squad now consists of 20 players: Justin Avendano (injury replacement for Mickey Edwards), Jake Ball, Nick Bertus (local replacement for Nathan Lyon) Carlos Brathwaite, Dan Christian, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Moises Henriques (c), Jason Holder, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Ben Manenti, Lawrence Neil-Smith (local replacement player for Jackson Bird), Stephen O'Keefe, Josh Philippe, Lloyd Pope, Tom Rogers (local replacement player for Sean Abbott), Gurinder Sandhu (local replacement for Mitchell Starc), Jordan Silk, James Vince.
