Perth Scorchers’ BBL11 final hero Laurie Evans among familiar names in import draft

Perth Scorchers’ grand final hero Laurie Evans headlines the latest contingent of Big Bash League draft nominees.

The hard-hitting Englishman was a revelation in his maiden BBL campaign last summer, amassing 361 runs at an average of 40.11 and strike rate of 144.4.

Evans saved his best performance for last, producing a player-of-the-final knock against Sydney Sixers to help the Scorchers win a record fourth title.

He struck 76 not out from 41 balls, the highest score by a No. 6 in BBL history, to rescue his team from 4-25 to a winning total with a century stand alongside skipper Ashton Turner.

Two other players with ties to the Scorchers, left-arm speedster Tymal Mills and explosive top-order hitter Liam Livingstone, are also on the latest list of around 70 Englishmen.

Destructive New Zealand batter Colin Munro, who played for the Scorchers the past two seasons, was on an earlier nominations list.

Perth will take picks six (round one), 14 (round two), 19 (round three) and 30 (round four) into the inaugural draft, to be held on August 28.

Each of the eight franchises are able to retain one import from their list last season without a rival team poaching them, meaning the Scorchers can choose between Mills, Munro and Evans or bypass all three.

Livingstone, who is attracting strong interest from multiple teams, will likely be in the platinum category.

He last featured for the Scorchers two seasons ago which means he’s on the open market and can’t be a priority selection.

On the local front, the Scorchers have 14 players re-signed for next season - Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner and Andrew Tye.

New South Welshman Kurtis Patterson, who had the best campaign of his T20 career last year after being promoted to the top of the order, is the only one from last year’s BBL final XI yet to put pen to paper.

A total of around 240 players have nominated for the import draft so far including former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, veteran West Indian all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard and superstar Afghanistan and Adelaide Strikers spinner Rashid Khan.

The Scorchers’ BBL12 campaign gets underway with a grand final rematch against the Sixers at Optus Stadium on December 17, their first home game in more than a year.