Why is Rilee Rossouw not playing today’s BBL 12 match between Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers at Showground Stadium?

During the 34th match of the ongoing 12th season of the Big Bash League between Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers at the Showground Stadium, Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques won the bat flip and chose to bowl.

Henriques’ decision was proved right by pacer Sean Abbott on the first ball that he bowled as Thunder opening batter Alex Hales (0) returned to the pavilion without any sort of contribution.

A first-ball duck saw Hales getting hit on the pad enough in front of the wicket for the umpire to rule him out. Although Hales challenged the umpire’s decision via a DRS, the decision wasn’t reversed due to umpire’s call.

It is worth a mention that Sixers have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI for this match as batter Kurtis Patterson and fast bowler Ben Dwarshuis have come in for batter Daniel Hughes and spinner Izharulhaq Naveed.

Why is Rilee Rossouw not playing today vs Sydney Sixers?

In spite of Sixers pacer Todd Murphy finding Thunder wicket-keeper batter Matthew Gilkes (7) plumb in front of the stumps, there is no sign of top-order batter Rilee Rossouw in the middle. The same is because Rossouw is one of the two changes made by the hosts for the Sydney derby.

In addition to Rossouw, Joel Davies is also not part of Thunder’s XI tonight. Instead, batter Sam Whiteman and all-rounder Daniel Sams are playing in Sydney on Sunday.

Rossouw, 33, has returned to South Africa for his participation for Pretoria Capitals in SA20 2023 just like former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis. Rossouw’s second BBL season was a underwhelming one as he scored only 127 runs in seven innings at an average and strike rate of 18.14 and 118.69 respectively. The left-handed batter was always meant to return back to his home country after the first half of BBL 2022-23.